HOW  TO  PLAY  GOLF 


HOW  TO  PLAY  GOLF 

BY 

HARRY  VARDON 


WITH  FORTY-EIGHT  ILLUSTRATIONS 


PHILADELPHIA 

GEORGE   W.    JACOBS    &   GO. 

PUBLISHERS 


PREFACE 

AMONGST  games,  golf  has  a  nature 
peculiarly  its  own,  and  in  no  respect 
is  its  distinctiveness  more  marked  than 
in  the  circumstance  that  it  allows  its 
devotees  practically  a  free  hand  in  the 
choice  of  the  implements,  the  ball,  and 
the  extent  and  general  characteristics  of 
the  playing  ground.  Golf,  then,  is  apt 
to  alter  considerably  as  the  seasons  come 
and  go.  It  is  a  game  in  which  the  senti- 
ment of  liberty  holds  sway.  In  point  of 
fact,  it  has  changed  a  great  deal  during 
recent  years,  and  for  that  reason  I  offer 
no  apology  for  appearing  a  second  time 
as  the  author  of  a  book  of  instruction 
on  a  subject  which  I  have  made  my 
life-study.  My  first  was  "The  Complete 
Golfer,"  which  is  still  popular.  The  present 

258615 


vi  HOW  TO  PLAY  GOLF 

work  does  not  replace  that,  but  supplements 
it  in  the  light  of  recent  developments. 

Golf  demands  deep  thought  till  the  end 
of  one's  playing  days,  and,  as  one  grows 
older,  ideas  continue  to  present  them- 
selves in  connexion  with  the  principles 
of  executing  shots.  If  I  may  say  with 
frankness  what  I  think,  I  will  express  the 
opinion  that  many  amateurs  fail  to  attain 
that  degree  of  success  which  is  within 
their  reach  for  the  simple  reason  that  they 
do  not  reflect  sufficiently  upon  the  possi- 
bilities, especially  where  small  points  are 
concerned.  The  professional  has  to  think, 
because  golf  is  his  livelihood ;  that,  in 
the  abstract,  is  why  he  excels.  He  gives 
close  attention  to  details,  and  knows  the 
cause  of  every  effect. 

In  this  volume,  I  have  tried  to  explain 
to  the  full  the  twin  subjects  of  cause  and 
effect  on  the  links.  If  the  golfer  of  ability 
finds  some  hints  which  he  learnt  in  the  long 
ago,  let  him  recollect  the  needs  of  the 
moderate  performer.  And,  in  any  case, 


PREFACE  vii 

even  the  short-handicap  player  may  not 
be  the  worse  for  a  refreshment  of  his 
memory  in  matters  of  the  fundamental 
rules  of  action.  It  is  in  the  more  advanced 
kind  of  golf  that  the  chief  changes  in 
methods  (the  natural  corollary  of  changes 
in  materials)  have  taken  place.  I  have 
thought  over  them  with  care,  and  set 
down  what  I  regard  as  the  most  profit- 
able means  of  playing  the  game  to-day  ; 
the  methods  which  I  personally  em- 
ploy. 

In  this  connexion,  let  me  describe  an 
experience  which  often  falls  to  the  pro- 
fessional who  is  called  upon  to  travel 
considerably  in  pursuit  of  golf.  A  little 
while  ago  I  visited  a  course  which  I  had 
not  seen  for  seven  or  eight  years.  To 
mention  one  particular  hole  will  be  suffi- 
cient for  my  purpose.  It  had  not  been 
altered  since  the  time  of  my  introduction 
to  it.  Moreover,  I  had  to  play  it  on  the 
second  occasion  in  practically  the  same 
circumstances,  in  the  matter  of  weather 


viii  HOW  TO  PLAY  GOLF 

as  seven  or  eight  years  ago — that  is  to 
say,  in  a  strong  right-to-left  wind.  In 
the  first  instance,  I  decided  to  hit  my 
drive  into  the  wind  and  impart  pull  to 
the  ball  so  as  to  gain  distance  by  the 
effect  of  the  spin  and  the  wind  coming 
into  kindly  co-operation  on  my  behalf 
when  the  shot  was  nearing  its  end.  On 
the  later  occasion  I  found  myself  playing 
what  I  regard  as  the  up-to-date  game. 
I  hit  an  almost  straight  drive  with  a  sus- 
picion of  cut  on  it  so  as  to  bring  the  ball 
into  the  wind  at  the  finish  of  its  flight. 
Each  constituted,  I  think,  the  right  tactics 
at  the  time  of  their  employment.  But 
why  did  I  alter  ?  Because  the  ball  had 
changed.  Now  that  the  ball  is  so  resilient 
and  so  susceptible  to  the  slightest  move- 
ment which  accentuates  the  run,  the  in- 
tentional pull  is  the  most  dangerous  shot 
in  the  game.  To  keep  it  under  perfect 
control  when  the  ground  is  hard  and  the 
course  is  narrow  is  so  difficult  as  to  involve 
a  very  big  risk.  Here,  then,  is  a  concrete 


PREFACE  ix 

example   of  the   way   in  which  golf  has 
changed. 

In  regard  to  the  photographs  which 
accompany  these  pages,  I  should  like  to 
say  that  they  were  taken  in  the  actual 
process  of  accomplishing  shots  that  pro- 
duced precisely  the  desired  effects.  I  can 
assure  the  reader  that  they  represent  the 
player  in  the  positions  which  he  knows, 
after  many  years  of  study,  to  be  correct — 
or,  in  the  case  of  the  illustrations  of  wrong 
swings,  incorrect.  In  the  background  of 
the  pictures  will  be  noticed  a  high  pole. 
I  had  it  put  there  so  as  to  throw  into 
relief  the  position  of  the  head  and  body 
during  the  different  stages  of  the  swings. 
The  device  in  front  of  several  of  the  illus- 
trations also  makes  clear  the  absence  of 
movement,  or  the  unhappy  movement  of 
the  head.  The  different  stances  are  well 
defined  by  the  position  of  the  feet  in  the 
chalk-line  figure  in  which  the  photographs 
were  taken.  I  have  not  included  the  rules 
of  golf.  For  one  thing,  they  are  changed 


x  HOW  TO  PLAY  GOLF 

from  time  to  time,  and  for  another,  they 
are  very  easily  accessible  to  anybody  who 
wants  them. 

I  greatly  desire  to  thank  Mr  Robert  E. 
Howard  for  the  part  which  he  has  played 
in  the  production  of  this  volume.  Let  me 
explain  how  it  has  been  born.  I  love 
teaching  golf ;  I  like  the  task  far  better 
than  that  of  competing  in  championships. 
I  can  write  down  just  how  I  make  every 
shot  and  why  I  make  it  that  way,  but  to 
put  it  into  the  form  of  book  instruction 
is  a  different  matter.  Mr  Howard  has 
taken  in  hand  my  notes,  arranged  them 
in  order,  and  rounded  off  the  rough  edges. 
For  the  purpose  of  "  How  to  Play  Golf/' 
I  have  exhausted  myself,  I  think,  of  all 
the  knowledge  of  the  subject  I  ever  pos- 
sessed, and  I  trust  that  the  result  may  be 
helpful  to  the  many  thousands  of  people 
who  wish  to  wake  up  one  fine  day  to  find 
themselves  at  scratch,  or  better,  on  the 
links.  H.  V. 

TOTTERIDGE 

August  1912 


CONTENTS 

PAGE 

I.  THE  TREND  OF  THE  GAME  i 

II.  GOLF  COURSE  ARCHITECTURE  ...        23 

III.  EQUIPMENT  :  SOME  TRIFLES  THAT  AMOUNT 

TO  MUCH 45 

IV.  Two  ESSENTIALS  OF  SUCCESS  ...        68 
V.  How  TO  DRIVE 89 

VI.  CLEEK  AND  IRON  SHOTS          .         .         .114 

VII.  MASHIE  SHOTS 129 

VIII.  ON  THE  GREEN 152 

IX.  RECOVERING  FROM  DIFFICULTIES      .         .  170 

X.   THE  PUSH  SHOT 189 

XI.  GOLF  IN  A  WIND    .         .         .         .        .  206 

XII.  SOME  COMMON   FAULTS  ....  230 

XIII.  PROMINENT  PLAYERS  AND  THEIR  METHODS  252 

XIV.  SUMMER  GOLF  AND  WINTER  GOLF  .         .  270 

XV.  THE  GAME  ABROAD         .         .         .        .278 
INDEX  .  .        .  .      293 

XI 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS 

HARRY  VARDON  ....    Frontispiece 

FACING  PAGE 

A  GOOD  TEST  FOR  THE  TEE  SHOT  IN  MODERN 

GOLF  ......       29 

GRIPS  RIGHT  AND  WRONG      .          .          .          .82 

The  ordinary  grip—A  frequently  seen  but  unquestionably 
wrong  grip. 

THE  OVERLAPPING  GRIP        .  .  .  .84 

The  beginning  of  the  swing — The  top  of  the  swing. 

THE  DRIVE  OR  BRASSIE  SHOT  .  .  .104 

Stance — Top  of  the  swing — Finish. 

COMING  DOWN  .          .          .          .          .          .106 

The  wrong  downward  swing — As  the  club  should  come 
down. 

FAULTY  MOVEMENTS   .....      108 

A  wrong  back  swing  and  perhaps  the  most  common  of 
faults— A  wrong  position  at  the  top  of  the  swing— A 
wrong  finish. 

THE  CLEEK  SHOT        .          .          .          .          .120 

Stance — Top  of  the  swing — Finish. 

THE  IRON  SHOT          .          .          .          .          .122 

Stance — Top  of  the  swing — Finish. 

THE  ORDINARY  MASHIE  SHOT          .          .          .136 

Stance — Top  of  the  swing. 

FINISH  OF  THE  ORDINARY  MASHIE  SHOT    .  .      138 

For  a  stroke  of,  say,  80  yards — For  a  shot  of  less  distance. 

THE  MASHIE  SHOT  WITH  CUT  .  .  .144 

Stance— Beginning  of  the  upward  swing — Top  of  the  swing. 

xiu 


xiv  HOW  TO  PLAY  GOLF 

FACING  PAGE 

THE  MASHIE  SHOT  WITH  CUT  .  .  .146 

Finish  for  a  stroke  of  medium  length — Finish  for  a  longer 
shot. 

THE  RUNNING-UP  SHOT         .  .  .  .149 

Stance — Top  of  the  swing. 

THE  RUNNING-UP  SHOT         .  .  .  .150 

Finish. 

PUTTING  ......      160 

BUNKERED        .  .  .  .  .  .174 

Stance  for  the  niblick  shot — Top  of  the  swing  for  the 
niblick. 

BUNKERED       .  .          .          .          .          .176 

Finish  of  the  niblick  shot — A  frequently  seen  but  incorrect 
method  of  playing  a  niblick  shot. 

THE  "PUSH"  CLEEK  SHOT     ....      200 

Stance — Top  of  the  swing. 

THE  "  PUSH  "  CLEEK  SHOT     ....      202 

Finish— Finish  for  a  long  shot. 

A  DISTINCTION  WITH  A  DIFFERENCE  .  .      204 

The  ordinary  cleek  shot — The  push  shot  with  the  cleek. 

INTENTIONAL  SLICING  AND  PULLING  .  .      222 

Stance  for  the  slice — Stance  for  the  pull. 

IN  THE  WIND    ....  .      226 

A  drive  against  the  wind — A  drive  down  wind. 

IN  THE  BEGINNING      .  .  .         between  244-245 

The  wrong  back  swing. 

IN  THE  BEGINNING      ...  „      244-245 

The  correct  back  swing. 

The  illustrations  are  from  action  photographs  specially 
taken  by  Arthur  Ullyett. 


HOW  TO  PLAY  GOLF 


HOW  TO  PLAY  GOLF 

CHAPTER  I 
THE  TREND  OF  THE  GAME 

FOR  the  modern  beginner  at  golf  to 
attain  a  fair  degree  of  proficiency  is, 
if  he  pursue  his  object  in  the  proper  way, 
an  immeasurably  easier  matter  than  it  was 
for  any  of  us  who  started  to  play  in  the 
days  of  the  gutta-percha  ball.  And  it  is 
possible  to  exhibit  a  deal  of  Christian 
philosophy  in  congratulating  the  newer 
inhabitants  of  the  golfing  world  in  respect 
to  this  facility,  because  I  am  certain  that 
those  people  who  went  through  the  mill 
in  the  earlier  days  of  the  pastime  ob- 
tained, of  sheer  necessity,  a  knowledge  of 
shots  such  as  the  rubber-cored  ball,  under 
present  conditions,  never  encourages.  That 
knowledge  has  been  the  great  and  faithful 


2  HOW  TO  PLAY  GOLF 

stand-by  of  the  older  players  in  times  of 
strenuous  competition  with  younger  rivals. 

On  a  recent  summer's  afternoon,  when 
the  ball  had  been  soaring  and  bounding 
from  well-hit  tee  shots  over  some  300 
yards  of  country,  when  the  course,  even 
as  we  finished  at  five  o'clock,  seemed  to 
be  alive  at  every  point  with  folk  in  full 
enjoyment  of  this  wonderful  game,  I  fell 
to  thinking  in  a  more  or  less  haphazard 
way  of  the  developments  which  had  taken 
place  in  golf  during  the  time  that  I  had 
known  it.  And  I  could  not  help  marvel- 
ling ;  I  could  not  help  rejoicing  at  having 
been  lucky  enough  to  live  through  what 
had  been  surely  the  most  crowded  age 
that  ever  pastime  knew. 

It  is  just  about  twenty  years  since  I 
began  to  make  a  deep  and  earnest  study 
of  golf.  Of  course,  I  have  played  it  a  good 
deal  longer  than  that,  but  my  earlier  efforts 
were  of  a  rather  light-hearted  description, 
and  I  had  no  idea  that  the  game  would 
ever  be  more  to  me  than  a  means  of 


THE  TREND  OF  THE  GAME         3 

occasional  diversion.  Twenty  years  re- 
present, perhaps,  a  considerable  portion 
of  a  person's  life,  but  they  pass  quickly 
when  events  move  so  rapidly  as  they  have 
moved  in  golf.  Matters  of  the  moment 
and  possibilities  of  the  immediate  future 
are  apt  to  completely  fill  the  mind ;  and 
when  one  sits  down  to  reflect  on  the  trans- 
formation that  two  decades  have  produced, 
memories  and  the  comparisons  which  they 
engender  appear  to  one  almost  in  the  nature 
of  revelations. 

There  has  been  no  period  in  the  history 
of  the  game  so  pregnant  with  evolution  as 
the  past  seven  or  eight  years,  since  golfers 
began  to  understand  the  possibilities  of  the 
rubber-cored  ball  and  to  adapt  themselves 
to  the  new  manner  of  playing  provoked  by 
that  revolutionary  invention.  For,  so  far 
as  one  can  discuss  such  a  matter  in  a  general 
way,  a  method  of  hitting  the  shots  different 
from  that  which  prevailed  in  the  days  of 
the  gutta-percha  ball  has  most  certainly 
come  into  vogue.  Such,  at  least,  is  the 


4  HOW  TO  PLAY  GOLF 

opinion  which  I  have  formed  after  travel- 
ling many  thousands  of  miles  in  pursuit  of 
golf,  visiting  many  hundreds  of  courses, 
and  seeing  the  pastime  during  these  twenty 
years  in  all  its  phases ;  and  I  will  en- 
deavour to  justify  the  belief  before  I  reach 
the  end  of  this  chapter. 

That  the  rubber-cored  ball  has  done, 
and  is  still  doing,  a  great  deal  to  spoil 
golf  as  an  athletic  and  scientific  recreation 
I  feel  convinced.  It  is  still  a  great  game, 
and  nothing  can  kill  the  peculiar  fascina- 
tion which  it  exercises  over  its  devotees, 
and  yet  it  seems  to  me  to  be  a  different 
sort  of  game  from  that  which  we  played 
with  the  gutta-percha  ball.  But  here  I 
may  perhaps  be  permitted  to  say  that, 
regretful  as  I  am  at  the  reign  of  the 
rubber-core,  which  has  removed  much 
of  the  old  necessity  for  thought  and  grace 
of  style,  I  fear  that  nothing  but  indescrib- 
able chaos  would  result  if  the  suggestion 
to  standardize  the  gutty  for  competitions, 
put  forward  in  several  influential  quarters, 


THE  TREND  OF  THE  GAME         5 

were  adopted.  We  must  not  forget  that, 
for  countless  thousands  of  people,  the 
rubber-core  has  greatly  increased  the 
enjoyment  of  golf  by  making  the  game 
much  more  easy.  It  may  be  that  they 
can  only  spare  the  time  to  play  two  days 
a  week,  and  they  want  to  extract  the 
maximum  amount  of  pleasure  that  those 
two  days  and  the  opposition  will  allow. 
Nothing  would  induce  them  to  return  to 
the  gutty  (or,  as  it  would  be  in  many  cases, 
play  with  it  for  the  first  time),  and  person- 
ally I  do  not  blame  them.  Then  what 
would  be  the  position  ?  It  would  be  a 
state  of  confusion  far  worse  than  anything 
which  now  exists,  although  the  present 
situation  truly  offers  food  for  thought. 
The  leading  players  (indeed  all  golfers 
who  like  to  take  part  in  competitions) 
would  have  to  keep  in  practice  with  the 
gutty.  They  could  not  be  expected  to 
use  that  ball  one  day  and  a  rubber-core 
the  next.  At  least,  if  they  tried  to  do  so, 
the  perplexity  arising  from  the  frequent 


6  HOW  TO  PLAY  GOLF 

change  would  bring  despair  to  their 
souls. 

The  competition  golfer  who  practised 
with  a  gutty  would  scarcely  dare  to  so 
much  as  look  at  a  man  playing  with  a 
rubber-core.  I  have  a  vivid  recollection 
of  an  episode  bearing  on  that  point.  In 
the  open  championship  at  Hoylake,  in 
1902,  when  a  few  rubber-cores  were  em- 
ployed, I  was  coupled  with  Peter  M'Ewen, 
who  was  one  of  the  converts  to  the  inno- 
vation. Like  the  majority,  I  remained 
faithful  to  the  gutty.  I  happened  to  be 
driving  rather  well,  and  was  generally 
a  little  way  in  front  of  M'Ewen  from  the 
tee,  so  that  he  usually  had  to  play  "  the 
odd  "  in  the  approaches. 

After  seeing  him  pitch  his  Haskell  short 
of  the  green  for  the  ball  to  perform  the 
remainder  of  the  journey  along  the  ground, 
I  was  absolutely  nonplussed.  I  simply 
could  not  get  up  with  a  mashie.  Re- 
peatedly I  told  myself  that  I  must  not 
take  any  notice  of  what  his  ball  had  done  ; 


THE  TREND  OF  THE  GAME         7 

that  I  must  think  only  of  what  my  ball 
would  do.  But,  as  every  golfer  knows, 
the  inclination  to  judge  the  run  by  that 
which  the  other  player  obtains  is  irre- 
sistible. I  tried  to  pitch  farther  and 
farther  to  allow  for  the  difference  between 
the  rubber-core  and  the  gutty,  but  some- 
thing (I  suppose  the  knowledge  of  how 
much  too  far  he  would  be  if  he  hit  as  I 
intended  to  hit)  seemed  to  hold  me  back, 
and  I  was  always  short.  I  lost  that 
championship  by  a  stroke.  I  have  no 
regrets,  because  my  old  friend,  "  Sandy  " 
Herd,  deserved  a  championship  if  ever 
man  merited  that  honour.  I  have  men- 
tioned the  matter  solely  to  show  what 
distraction  might  be  visited  upon  the  user 
of  the  gutty  if  he  merely  went  out  and 
saw  other  people  playing  with  rubber- 
cores.  And  there  would  be  so  many  of 
the  latter  that  he  would  find  them  hard 
to  dodge. 

The  confusion  in  the  matter  of  arranging 
matches   would   be   indescribable.     As   an 


8  HOW  TO  PLAY  GOLF 

instance,  let  me  relate  a  little  experience. 
At  one  time  I  played  many  games  with 
an  amateur  who  had  the  shortest  swing  I 
ever  saw.  He  was  a  fine  sportsman,  and 
as  pleasant  an  opponent  as  I  have  met, 
but  I  cannot  truthfully  say  that  I  admired 
his  style.  It  was  like  the  action  of  a  man 
cracking  a  whip  "  underhand/'  so  to  speak. 
He  simply  took  the  club  back  a  little  way, 
and  gave  the  ball  a  sharp  tap.  He  hardly 
ever  missed  a  shot,  but,  of  course,  with 
the  gutty  he  could  not  get  sufficient  dis- 
tance. I  could  give  him  a  stroke  a  hole 
and  a  beating.  When  the  Haskells  came 
over  from  America,  he  was  among  the  few 
who  obtained  early  supplies  at  huge  prices. 
Those  were  the  times  when  a  Haskell  was 
cheap  at  a  sovereign.  He  brought  a 
sample  out  to  play  me  one  day,  and  I 
soon  discovered  that,  using  a  gutty,  I 
could  hardly  give  him  a  third.  He  played 
me  many  more  games  with  this  difference 
in  the  ball  still  prevailing,  and  he,  with  a 
third,  beat  me  as  often  as  I  beat  him. 


THE  TREND  OF  THE  GAME         9 

He  subsequently  distinguished  himself  in 
open  scratch  competitions,  and  was  finalist 
in  a  county  championship.  This  may  be 
an  exceptional  case  (the  rubber-core  suited 
the  style  of  my  erstwhile  opponent  even 
better  than  that  of  the  average  player), 
but  it  affords  an  indication  of  the  chaos 
that  would  prevail  if  we  had  some  players 
employing  the  rubber  ball  and  others 
suffering  in  the  cause  of  difficult  golf  with 
the  gutta-percha  article. 

No,  deeply  as  I  grieve  at  the  passing  of 
the  gutty,  I  do  not  see  how  it  is  to  be 
reinstated,  even  to  the  limited  extent  of 
its  being  made  a  standard  ball  for  cham- 
pionships. The  rubber-core  is  established, 
and  nothing  can  shift  it  without  creating 
fresh  embarrassment.  It  has  had  one 
useful  effect.  I  believe  that  it  has  been 
responsible  to  some  extent  for  the  enor- 
mously increased  popularity  of  golf.  By 
making  the  game  easier,  it  has  flattered 
many  people  into  the  belief  that  they  are 
better  players  than  is  the  case,  and  that 


io  HOW  TO  PLAY  GOLF 

they  can  master  the  finer  points  of  the 
pastime  in  a  period  which,  in  due  course, 
they  discover  to  be  hopelessly  insufficient 
for  the  purpose.  That  may  be  good  or 
bad,  according  to  the  point  of  view.  In 
the  sense  that  it  affords  greater  enjoyment 
for  the  majority,  it  is  good.  In  the  sense 
that  it  does  away  with  the  old  incentive 
to  deep  thought  and  consummate  skill,  it 
is  bad.  Golf  will  never  be  an  easy  game, 
nor  will  it  ever  again  be  quite  the  game 
that  it  was  before  the  rubber-cored  ball 
made  its  appearance. 

Personally,  I  am  convinced  that  while 
the  scores  are  getting  lower,  as  they  must 
do  with  a  ball  that  affords  such  help,  the 
standard  of  golf  in  general  is  deteriorating. 
I  have  put  down  that  remark  not  merely 
as  the  result  of  a  sudden  inspiration.  I 
have  held  the  opinion  for  several  years, 
and  expressed  it  to  friends.  Nothing  has 
happened  to  justify  an  alteration  in  my 
belief.  Wherever  I  have  gone,  the  same 
evidence  of  a  falling-off  in  the  intrinsic 


THE  TREND  OF  THE  GAME        n 

quality  of  the  golf  has  been  manifest,  and 
it  is  attributable  to  the  influence  of  the 
rubber-cored  ball.  For  one  thing,  players 
have  become  careless.  The  miss  is  some- 
times better  than  the  hit ;  and  everybody 
is  aware  of  the  fact.  There  was  wisdom 
in  the  remark  of  one  of  my  opponents  who 
had  topped  his  mashie  stroke  to  within 
holing  distance  :  "  Any  old  shot  will  do 
nowadays/'  All  too  often  it  will  do  re- 
markably well.  In  the  time  of  the  gutty, 
a  player  knew  that  if  he  perpetrated  a 
bad  stroke,  he  would  be  punished.  He 
would  be  short,  or,  if  his  ball  reached  a 
bunker,  it  would  not  jump  the  hazard. 
The  knowledge  that  there  was  no  mercy 
for  those  who  erred  impelled  him  to  be 
careful. 

There  was  only  one  way  to  play  every 
shot ;  it  had  to  be  played  properly.  With 
the  present  ball  there  are  several  ways  of 
obtaining  the  desired  end,  and,  what  is 
worse,  a  good  stroke  is  not  infrequently 
ruined  by  the  resilient  ball  lighting  on 


12  HOW  TO  PLAY  GOLF 

very  keen  ground  and  bounding  away  into 
all  sorts  of  trouble. 

I  can  recall  plenty  of  instances  where,  in 
succeeding  rounds,  I  have  played  at  a  cer- 
tain hole  shots  that  seemed  to  be  identical. 
But  while  one  has  been  a  success,  the  other 
has  been  a  failure.  There  was  a  case  in 
point  in  the  German  open  championship 
at  Baden-Baden  in  1911.  I  won  the  com- 
petition all  right,  and  I  am  not  complain- 
ing about  the  incident,  which  was  of  the 
kind  from  which  we  all  suffer  in  turn.  I 
offer  it  as  one  among  many  proofs  that 
might  be  given  of  the  freakishness  of 
modern  golf.  At  a  short  hole  I  pitched 
to  what  was  evidently  the  right  spot ; 
for  the  ball  ran  up  close  to  the  pin,  and 
I  got  a  2.  In  the  next  round,  I  made 
what  appeared  to  be  an  equally  good  shot, 
but  the  ball  struck  such  ground  that  it 
stopped  short  of  the  plateau  green.  For 
no  apparent  reason  it  went  over  the  green 
from  the  second  shot,  and  I  escaped  with 
a  6 !  Nemesis  may  not  always  be  so 


THE  TREND  OF  THE  GAME        13 

brutal  as  that  when  you  misjudge  a  carry 
by  a  yard,  but  it  often  happens  that  a 
stroke  is  either  gained  or  lost  through  no 
extra  clever  or  extra  bad  play. 

I  have  declared  that  the  game  is  de- 
teriorating, and  I  have  made  the  state- 
ment with  such  assurance  because  I  feel 
that  I  can  tell  by  my  own  golf.  I  was 
fortunate  enough  in  1911  to  gain  the  open 
championship  and  a  nice  lot  of  other 
contests,  but  I  am  absolutely  certain  that 
the  actual  quality  of  my  golf  was  four 
strokes  a  round  worse  than  it  was  with 
the  gutta-percha  ball.  I  say  this  in  all 
sincerity,  after  considering  fully  just  what 
is  meant  by  a  difference  of  four  strokes 
in  eighteen  holes.  The  scores,  of  course, 
were  lower  (in  the  ordinary  way  you  can 
hardly  help  doing  a  round  with  the  rubber- 
core  that  is  low  by  comparison  with  a 
gutty  ball  return),  but  as  regards  the  real 
value  of  the  play,  my  own  has  deteriorated 
to  the  extent  indicated.  That  being  so, 
the  falling-off  must  have  been  general, 


14  HOW  TO  PLAY  GOLF 

or  I  surely  should  not  have  won  anything. 
Perhaps  I  happened  to  have  nothing  but 
good  fortune,  although  I  cannot  remember 
enjoying  more  than  a  fair  share  of  it. 

Whenever  in  the  old  days  I  took  an 
iron  club  in  my  hand,  I  could  tell  to  within 
two  or  three  yards  not  only  where  the  ball 
would  pitch,  but  wrhere  it  would  stop. 
That  was  possible  for  any  player  who 
practised  assiduously  with  the  gutty.  It 
is  certainly  not  possible  with  the  rubber- 
core.  In  fact,  I  fancy  everybody  is,  at 
times,  between  two  minds  as  to  how  it 
would  be  best  to  play  a  really  ordinary 
shot.  No  game  would  be  worth  pursuing 
unless  luck  entered  into  it  in  some  measure, 
but  the  rubber-core  in  golf  has  introduced 
the  elements  of  indecision  and  uncertainty 
into  the  player's  mind.  In  that  respect, 
golf  has  become  more  of  "a  thinking 
game  "  than  ever  ;  the  misfortune  is  that 
the  thoughts  seldom  lead  to  clearly-estab- 
lished principles. 

There  is,  however,  at  least  one  exception 


THE  TREND  OF  THE  GAME       15 

to  this  rule.  Among  the  players  who  have 
been  trained  mainly  on  the  rubber-core, 
there  certainly  seems  to  be  an  established 
and  generally  practised  mode  of  executing 
long  shots,  and  it  is  a  mode  which  is  affect- 
ing the  standard  of  the  game.  Reference 
has  been  made  above  to  a  method  of  hit- 
ting the  shots  different  from  that  which 
prevailed  in  the  gutty  days.  The  differ- 
ence is  that  most  people  now  play  for  a 
pull.  In  the  matter  of  golf,  we  are  be- 
coming a  nation  of  natural  pullers.  This 
even  applies  in  the  majority  of  cases  to 
the  men  who  made  themselves  as  near 
perfect  as  could  be  with  the  gutty  ball. 
I  fancy  that  nearly  everybody  is  standing 
just  a  trifle  more  forward  than  in  former 
times,  in  order  to  produce  in  some  degree 
the  effect  of  the  pull  and  consequent  run. 
Very  rarely  do  you  see  a  man  trying  chiefly 
for  the  "  carry/'  which  is,  I  venture  to 
assert,  the  proper  and,  in  the  end,  most 
satisfactory  way  of  playing  golf. 

Naturally,  it  took  some  time  for  golfers 


16  HOW  TO  PLAY  GOLF 

to  learn  the  possibilities  of  the  rubber-core. 
Gradually,  however,  they  realized  that  the 
greatest  length  could  be  obtained  from 
it  by  playing  a  flat  shot  with  pull,  with 
the  result  that,  during  recent  years,  this 
style  of  stroke  has  become  predominant. 
Players  of  all  degrees  of  ability  have  dis- 
covered it,  and  they  employ  it  habitually. 
Many  have  lighted  upon  it  and  made  it 
their  manner  without  setting  out  in  any 
way  to  learn  deliberately  how  to  pull. 
It  is  hard  to  convince  oneself  that  it  looks 
well,  or  even  that  in  the  end  it  is  profitable. 
Sometimes  the  ball  flies  so  low  and  comes 
to  the  ground  so  soon  that  one  might 
almost  imagine  that  the  player  had  missed 
the  shot.  But  no,  it  is  his  method,  and 
the  ball  runs  and  runs  and  does  all  that  is 
necessary. 

So  far,  so  good ;  but  where  this  low- 
pulled  shot  is  a  real  menace  to  the  standard 
of  the  game  is  in  the  fact  that  it  is  be- 
coming ingrained  in  the  golfing  constitu- 
tion. It  is  becoming  so  essentially  a  habit 


THE  TREND  OF  THE  GAME        17 

that  the  golfer  cannot  get  out  of  the  way 
of  doing  it  when  it  would  be  to  his  advan- 
tage to  know  nothing  about  it.  It  enters 
into  his  iron  shots.  They,  too,  are  played 
with  pull,  because  that  is  his  natural  way 
of  playing.  So  that  when  he  finds  him- 
self in  a  situation  which  demands  the 
old-fashioned  kind  of  pitch  shot  (and  he 
is  often  so  placed),  he  is  at  a  disadvantage. 
Sooner  or  later  championships,  scratch 
medals,  and  everything  else  will  be  won 
by  players  who  had  not  the  benefit  of 
learning  the  game  with  the  gutty.  Unless 
a  great  change  takes  place  in  the  present 
trend  of  golfing  style,  all  those  winners 
will  be  pullers  by  instinct,  capable  of  get- 
ting a  very  fine  distance  with  the  long 
shots,  but  unable  to  forget,  when  executing 
iron  approaches,  their  natural  inclination. 
Such,  at  least,  is  the  impression  which  I 
have  formed  after  studying  the  game  as 
deeply  as  ever  since  the  introduction  of 
the  rubber-core,  and  I  cannot  think  that 
this  phase  of  the  evolution  is  good. 


i8  HOW  TO  PLAY  GOLF 

There  is  one  way  in  which  it  can  be 
discouraged.     It  is  by  demanding  a  long 
carry    from    every    tee.     For    the    short 
driver   (if  such  a  person  there  be)   there 
could  be  a  way  round  so  that  he  should 
not  be  in  trouble  every  time  he  reached 
the  limit  of  his  powers.     Golf  is  for  the 
multitude ;     not    for    plus    and    scratch 
players  only ;    and  I   realize  to  the  full 
that  it  is  necessary  for  the  average  course 
to   be   of   a   character   which   will   afford 
enjoyment  to  moderate  players  as  well  as 
to  good  ones.     But  if  scope  were  given 
for  a  really  big  carry  from  every  tee,  with 
a  path  offered  to  the  shorter  driver  whereby 
he  would  not  be  punished  if  he  hit  the  ball 
properly,  albeit  he  might  lose  half  a  shot 
to  the  man  who  accomplished  the  carry, 
in    these    circumstances    inherent     pulling 
would  be  checked.     The  swing  which,  in 
a    general    way,    is    undoubtedly    getting 
shorter,  would  resume  its  old  length  and 
rhythm  because  the  good   player,  at   any 
rate,  would  be  induced  to  go  for  the  carry. 


THE  TREND  OF  THE  GAME        19 

And  that  would  mean  hitting  the  shot 
just  as  it  was  hit  with  the  gutty.  I  am 
aware  that  this  plan  would  not  be  practic- 
able in  all  places,  but  it  would  be  possible 
in  many. 

An  instance  may  perhaps  be  given  of 
the  way  in  which  the  golfer  of  the  rubber- 
core  age  is  handicapped.  Some  time  ago 
I  played  nine  rounds  of  a  course  with  a 
man  who,  during  recent  years,  has  greatly 
distinguished  himself.  He  is  a  fine  golfer, 
but  his  style  is  essentially  of  the  kind  that 
has  become  general  since  the  introduction 
of  the  rubber-core.  One  of  the  holes 
called  for  a  carry  of  quite  190  yards — 
an  exceptionally  fine  hole  I  thought. 
Perhaps  in  the  same  circumstances,  any- 
body else  would  have  thought  the  same. 
A  river  and  a  large  bunker  were  among 
the  obstacles  that  rendered  necessary  the 
big  carry,  while  on  either  side  were  chest- 
nut trees.  It  was  not  supremely  difficult 
to  the  gutty-trained  player,  and  I  managed 
to  get  on  to  the  green  eight  times  in  nine 


20  HOW  TO  PLAY  GOLF 

attempts.  My  opponent,  playing  what  I 
would  call  the  golf  of  the  rubber-core  age, 
did  not  get  on  once.  He  could  not  carry 
far  enough.  I  am  mentioning  this  in  no 
spirit  of  arrogance.  It  simply  shows  the 
difficulty  which  besets  the  golfer  of  modern 
methods  when  the  necessity  arises  for  him 
to  abandon  the  low  flying  shot  with  pull. 
He  finds  that  he  cannot  easily  shake  off 
his  habitual  mode  of  operation.  And  that 
necessity  will  always  arise,  because  if  all 
the  courses  in  the  world  could  be  altered 
to  suit  the  peculiarities  of  the  rubber-cored 
ball,  golfers,  being  human,  would  still  miss 
strokes  or  send  them  off  the  line  in  such 
a  way  as  to  revive  the  need  for  high  shots 
with  little  run. 

This,  then,  is  why  I  think  it  would  be 
best  from  every  point  of  view  if  golfers 
played  for  the  carry  instead  of  for  the 
run,  and  why  I  suggest  that  a  long  carry 
from  the  tee  should  be  encouraged.  For 
ordinary  purposes,  that  is  to  say,  for  the 
clubs  with  a  considerable  majority  of 


THE  TREND  OF  THE  GAME        21 

members  who  play  only  about  twice  a 
week,  and  who  want  to  crowd  enjoyment 
rather  than  painful  experience  into  those 
two  days,  there  is  no  reason  why  golf 
should  be  made  excessively  difficult,  but 
there  is  a  difference  between  very  trying 
holes  and  those  which  merely  call  forth 
the  subterfuge  of  the  pull-and-run  stroke. 
The  rubber-core,  as  compared  with  the 
gutty,  has  not  greatly  increased  the  carry  ; 
the  revolution  has  been  created  by  the 
run.  Under  normal  conditions,  the  Haskell 
put  about  twenty  yards  on  to  our  shots, 
and  I  suppose  that  the  latest  types 
of  rubber-cores  have  added  about  forty 
yards  to  the  length  obtainable  with  the 
Haskell.  That  is,  of  course,  without  the 
aid  of  wind  or  sloping  ground.  The  carry 
in  ordinary  circumstances  has  not  altered 
very  much,  and  in  continuing  the  demand 
for  it  lies  the  best  chance  of  preserving 
some  of  the  qualities  of  gutty-ball  golf 
which,  in  the  opinion  of  nearly  all  who  are 
qualified  to  judge,  was  the  best  kind  of  golf. 


22  HOW  TO  PLAY  GOLF 

Nowadays,  by  playing  for  the  pulled 
shot,  it  is  possible  to  get  truly  extra- 
ordinary distance.  One  often  reads  of 
record  drives,  but  I  am  sure  that  dozens 
of  the  longest  drives  have  never  been 
measured.  In  the  summer  of  1911,  when 
the  ground  was  so  favourable  to  the  run, 
there  must  have  been  lots  of  shots  of  more 
than  400  yards.  I  know  that  at  the  long 
hole  at  Totteridge,  which  measures  540 
yards,  I  was  regularly  getting  on  to  the 
green  with  a  drive  and  a  niblick.  A 
mashie  for  my  second  would  have  meant 
going  too  far.  Players  in  other  places 
were  assuredly  having  similar  experiences. 
It  is  all  very  good  fun  while  it  lasts,  but 
it  is  not  good  practice  for  the  pastime  in 
its  entirety. 


CHAPTER  II 
GOLF  COURSE  ARCHITECTURE 

IT  is  certain  that,  if  you  are  going  to 
play  golf,  you  must  have  a  course  on 
which  to  play  it,  and  before  proceeding 
to  consider  any  other  phases  of  the  game, 
we  may  reasonably  devote  some  attention 
to  this  essential. 

On  the  manner  in  which  the  holes  are 
designed  depends  not  only  the  pleasure 
of  the  golfer.  The  style  of  architecture 
influences  very  considerably  the  methods 
of  the  habitual  user  of  the  course,  and 
either  limits  or  expands  his  chances  of 
improvement.  Much,  naturally,  must  be 
governed  by  local  conditions,  but  there 
are  certain  features  that  can  be  introduced 
almost  anywhere,  and  the  introduction  of 
which  must,  I  am  sure,  make  for  the 
common  good  in  tending  to  combine 


24  HOW  TO  PLAY  GOLF 

efficiency  with  enjoyment.  I  have  men- 
tioned in  the  foregoing  chapter  that  I 
would  offer  to  the  golfer  the  incentive  to 
try  to  effect  a  good  carry  from  every  tee. 
The  reasons  are,  I  hope,  satisfactory. 
There  is  not  a  lot  of  credit  attaching  to 
the  performance  of  making  the  ball  run 
along  the  ground  from  the  drives.  It 
ought  to  cover  most  of  the  distance  in  the 
air.  Since  the  arrival  of  the  rubber-cored 
ball,  the  outstanding  tendency  has  been 
to  abandon  cross-hazards  and  substitute 
bunkers  and  various  other  agents  of  retri- 
bution on  the  wings,  with  an  occasional 
pot  bunker  towards  the  middle  of  the 
course.  The  consequence  is  that  it  pays 
very  well  to  play  the  flat  running  shot ; 
often  it  does  not  matter  if  you  top  the 
ball,  so  long  as  you  keep  straight.  The 
top  is  sometimes  more  profitable  than  the 
cleanly-struck  shot  which  goes  slightly  off 
the  line. 

I  feel  convinced  that  the  way  to  restore 
the  old  standard  of  golf,  the  way  to  counter- 


GOLF  COURSE  ARCHITECTURE     25 

act  some  of  the  harm  done  by  the  rubber- 
core,  is  to  induce  golfers  to  realize  that,  in 
long  shots,  the  ball  ought  to  do  most  of 
its  work  by  carry  and  not  by  scuttling 
along  the  ground.  Everybody  will  be 
J)etter  off  in  the  end  for  such  an  apprecia- 
tion of  the  true  element  of  the  game, 
because  everybody  will  know  better  from 
sheer  necessity  of  practice  how  to  get  a 
ball  into  the  air  when  executing  iron  shots. 
In  short,  I  am  appealing  for  a  return  to 
something — but  not  exactly — like  the 
mode  of  hazard  that  prevailed  when  the 
gutty  ball  was  in  vogue.  It  has  been 
called  many  hard  names  in  its  time. 
Truth  to  tell,  the  old  type  of  inland  bunker, 
which  stretched  across  the  course  at  right- 
angles  to  the  fair  way,  was  a  very  dull, 
unnatural-looking  feature  of  the  green. 
But  it  had  its  good  points,  which  were 
capable  of  improvement,  and  the  wave 
of  feeling  against  it  that  swept  over  the 
land  was  matter  for  regret. 

I  may  be  assailed  with  the  remark  that, 


26  HOW  TO  PLAY  GOLF 

if  we  reinstate  the  cross-hazard,  we  shall 
at  once  revive  the  objections  to  it,  chief 
of  which  was  the  fact  that  it  had  a  sliding 
scale  of  difficulty,  governed  by  the  strength 
of  the  wind.  Down  wind,  it  was  an  easy 
carry ;  in  the  teeth  of  the  gale,  it  was 
almost  impossible.  It  may  also  have 
occurred  to  the  reader  that  the  carry,  to 
be  of  any  value  at  all  as  a  restorer  of  the 
former  kind  of  shot  and  to  test  the  good 
player,  would  need  to  be  a  really  long 
carry,  whereupon  the  poorer  players  would 
be  reduced  to  a  state  of  misery.  Their 
best  shots  would  merely  end  in  bunkers. 

I  have  thought  of  these  matters,  and 
I  cannot  see  that  they  offer  insuper- 
able difficulties.  The  plan  here  suggested 
could  be  put  into  practice  in  many  places, 
if  not  everywhere.  It  is,  in  brief,  to  have 
the  bunker  running  diagonally  across  the 
course,  that  part  of  the  hazard  which  is 
farthest  from  the  player  when  he  stands 
on  the  teeing-ground  being  the  direct  line 
to  the  green.  Or  a  chain  of  three  or  four 


GOLF  COURSE  ARCHITECTURE     27 

fairly  large,  deep  pot  bunkers  of  different 
shapes  stretching  diagonally  across  the 
fairway  is  equally  suitable.  The  point 
of  this  scheme  is  obvious.  The  player 
decides  for  himself  first  whether  he  will 
try  to  effect  the  carry  at  all,  and  next 
which  line  he  will  take.  Under  normal 
conditions,  a  first-class  golfer  would  go 
for  the  farthest  point,  which,  if  he  played 
the  shot  properly,  would  take  him  straight 
towards  the  hole.  At  the  same  time,  he 
would  open  up  the  green  for  his  second 
shot.  Under  this  system  of  bunkering, 
the  green  should  be  long  and  narrow,  so 
that  a  person  who  had  taken  other  than 
the  direct  line  for  his  drive  would  find 
an  increase  in  the  difficulties  of  the  next 
stroke.  The  green  would  be  at  an  awk- 
ward angle  for  him  ;  the  entrance  to  it 
would  be  slanting  away  from  him.  It 
would  be  spread  out  invitingly  to  the 
player  who  had  made  the  perfect  drive. 
Consequently,  it  would  pay  the  inferior 
golfer  to  think  carefully  about  his  plan 


28  HOW  TO  PLAY  GOLF 

of  action.  He  might  not  care  to  risk  the 
long  carry.  He  might  prefer  to  pick  out 
part  of  the  hazard  nearer  to  him  as  a  safer 
carry  for  the  drive.  Or  he  might  decide 
to  play  short  of  the  far  end  of  the  hazard 
and  trust  to  his  second  to  take  him  over 
it,  thus  keeping  the  green  well  open.  In 
any  case,  the  person  who  could  hit  the 
longer  and  better  tee  shot  would  generally 
gain  half  a  stroke — just  about  a  fitting 
reward,  I  venture  to  think,  for  such  su- 
periority. This  scheme  is,  in  effect,  the 
scheme  which  exists  at  Prince's  Sandwich, 
which  is  the  finest  test  of  golf  that  I  have 
ever  sampled.  Everybody  is  entitled  to 
his  opinion,  but,  personally,  I  never  hope 
to  play  on  a  better  course  than  Prince's 
Sandwich.  And  yet  it  is  by  no  means  a 
links  suited  only  to  plus  and  scratch  men. 
On  the  contrary,  it  is  immensely  popular 
amongst  the  great  army  of  handicap 
players  who  have  tried  it.  The  reason  is, 
that  no  shots  on  it  are  impossible  to  the 
player  who  has  mastered  the  rudiments 


Hole 


Cross   bunker  or 
chain  of  bun  He 


Teeing  ground 


A  good  test  for  the  tee  shot  in  modern  golf.  The  player  has  a 
choice  as  to  the  length  of  carry  which  he  will  attempt.  If  he  takes 
the  straight  line  to  the  hole,  and  accomplishes  the  carry  to  A,  he 
leaves  himself  with  a  comparatively  easy  second  shot.  If  he  cannot 
manage  the  long  carry,  and  prefers  to  drive  to  the  spot  marked  B, 
he  has  to  approach  the  hole  with  a  long  shot  from  a  difficult  angle. 
The  green  should  be  guarded  well  on  both  sides,  with  the  entrance 
made  easy  only  for  the  player  who  has  taken  the  straight  line. 


[  To  face  p.  29. 


GOLF  COURSE  ARCHITECTURE     29 

of  the  game.  The  better  golfer  attempts 
the  long  carries  ;  the  worse  golfer  contents 
himself  with  the  shorter  ones.  Every- 
body has  the  scope  for  employing  all  the 
proficiency  that  he  possesses,  and  the 
crack  does  not  always  come  so  very  well 
out  of  the  ordeal  since  he  is  often 
tempted  to  try  herculean  feats,  which  are 
almost  beyond  his  powers.  But  that, 
after  all,  is  his  own  fault.  The  poorer 
player  is  subjected  to  equal  enticement. 
It  is  a  fine  battle  of  wits  as  well  as  of 
power,  and,  under  the  conditions  brought 
about  by  the  rubber-cored  ball,  it  is  the 
best  golf  that  I  know. 

The  accompanying  diagram  will  afford 
at  a  glance  an  idea  of  the  principle  which 
I  have  in  mind.  The  advantage  of  this 
system  of  architecture  is  that,  except 
in  a  most  extraordinary  gale,  some  part 
of  the  hazard  can  always  be  carried, 
and  the  man  who  can  carry  the  farther 
obtains  his  due  reward.  There  is  need 
for  thought  and  skill  and  power  and, 


30  HOW  TO  PLAY  GOLF 

indeed,  all  the  qualities  that  made  golf 
so  great  a  game  in  the  time  of  the  gutta- 
percha  ball,  and  which  have  been  threatened 
with  extinction  by  the  advent  of  the  rubber- 
core. 

In  modern  golf,  no  holes  are  harder  to 
play  than  the  short  ones,  provided  that 
they  are  properly  designed.  I  used  to 
think — and  say — that  three  short  holes 
were  sufficient  on  any  course,  but  the 
character  of  the  game  has  changed  so 
vastly,  and  driving  has  been  made  so 
simple  by  comparison  with  the  difficulties 
which  it  presented  ten  years  ago,  that  I 
feel  that  on  present-day  links  even  five  short 
holes  are  not  too  many.  Whatever  facili- 
ties the  ball  may  afford  at  the  long  holes, 
it  is  certain  that  it  cannot  help  anybody 
at  the  short  ones,  and  so  the  latter  tend 
to  restore  some  of  the  demand  for  skill. 
They  must,  however,  call  for  perfect  tee 
shots.  There  must  be  no  mercy  for  the 
errant  player.  With  care  and  practice, 
anybody  ought  to  be  able  to  play  a  short 


GOLF  COURSE  ARCHITECTURE      31 

hole  properly.     An  easy  one  is  the  dullest 
thing  known  to  golf. 

At  the  seaside  the  architect  usually 
finds  ideal  sites  for  short  holes  staring  him 
in  the  face,  and  he  has  to  allow  the  lengths 
to  be  governed  by  the  character  of  the 
ready-made  hazards  and  the  run  of  the 
ground.  This  applies  to  some  extent  at 
inland  places,  but  here  he  often  has  to 
come  to  the  assistance  of  Nature  by  con- 
tributing bunkers  to  her  work,  so  that  he 
has  more  scope  for  deciding  as  to  what 
kind  of  shot  shall  be  necessary  from  the 
tee.  One  hole  may  well  be  a  mashie  shot, 
measuring  from  80  to  120  yards,  and  two 
others  can  be  from  120  to  160  yards  each 
in  length,  so  as  to  give  the  man  who  is 
fond  of  his  iron  a  chance  of  doing  some- 
thing good  with  it.  These  holes  ought  to 
present  many  difficulties  without  being 
unfair ;  the  bunkers  should  be  close  in 
to  the  greens,  and  capable  of  punishing 
anything  in  the  nature  of  a  bad  stroke. 
Two  other  holes  may  be  of  the  full-shot 


32  HOW  TO  PLAY  GOLF 

variety  (perhaps  some  people  will  object 
to  these  being  called  short  holes,  although, 
in  any  case,  they  are  not  long),  but 
here  the  bunkers  guarding  the  front  of 
the  green  should  be  about  twenty-five 
yards  short  of  the  near  edge  of  the 
putting  area  so  as  to  allow  for  the  run 
which  is  inseparable  from  a  full  shot.  It 
is  highly  important,  too,  that  the  ground 
between  the  bunker  and  the  green  should 
be  as  good  as  Nature  and  humanity  can 
combine  to  make  it.  There  should  be  no 
chance  for  it  to  impart  a  kick  to  the  ball. 
You  know  directly  you  have  played  the 
tee  shot  whether  you  have  hit  it  well  or 
ill,  and  it  is  bitterly  disappointing  to  see 
a  good  stroke  kick  into  a  bunker.  When 
you  play  to  come  in  one  way,  it  is  annoy- 
ing in  the  extreme  to  see  the  ball  jump 
the  other  way  through  a  fault  in  the  fair- 
way— or,  in  this  case,  unfair-way. 

Gorse,  bracken,  and  other  flora  of  the 
heath  or  common,  stretching  from  teeing- 
ground  to  green,  constitute  good  guards 


GOLF  COURSE  ARCHITECTURE    33 

for  short  holes,  but  where  it  is  necessary 
to  dig  a  bunker,  I  need  scarcely  say  that 
the  outline  of  the  hazard  should  be,  in  this 
case,  more  or  less  at  right  angles  to  the  line 
of  play  since  there  can  only  be  one  correct 
spot  to  carry,  even  though  that  spot  vary 
from  day  to  day,  according  to  the  wind. 
The  diagonal  bunker  comes  into  use  at 
the  longer  holes.  Of  these,  the  hardest 
to  play  under  modern  conditions'  are,  I 
think,  those  which  measure  about  400 
yards,  and  have  well-protected  greens. 
A  good  drive  is  needed  in  any  "case  ;  and 
against  the  wind,  a  full  second  shot  is 
often  demanded.  Still,  a  first-class  player 
can  get  home  by  means  of  two  perfect 
shots,  and  regain  the  stroke  which  he  is 
giving  to  an  inferior  opponent.  I  firmly 
believe  in  having  a  bunker  in  front  of  the 
green  with  the  object  of  making  the  golfer 
play  for  the  carry,  which  is  the  true  game  ; 
but  the  hazard  should  be  about  forty  yards 
short  of  the  pin.  In  dry  weather  it  is 
often  wellnigh  impossible  to  make  the 
3 


34  HOW  TO  PLAY  GOLF 

ball  stop  within  a  few  yards  of  where  it 
alights. 

Five  of  these  holes  are  not  too  many, 
and  to  give  the  shorter  driver  a  periodical 
land  of  promise,  I  would  have  four  holes 
of  from  330  to  370  yards  each.  A  distance 
°f  33°  yards  is  often  described  as  bad, 
because,  under  normal  circumstances,  it 
requires  more  than  one  full  shot  and  less 
than  two  strenuous  strokes.  But  approach- 
ing is  now  by  far  the  most  difficult  part  of 
the  game,  and  as  recovery  ought  to  be 
possible  at  any  part  of  the  course,  there 
is  no  harm  in  occasionally  facilitating  it. 
With  the  cross-hazard  existing  to  punish 
the  poor  drive,  the  person  who  had  been 
guilty  of  a  downright  bad  tee  shot  would 
have  to  effect  an  almost  superhuman 
recovery  to  obtain  a  4. 

The  gradient  of  the  ground  and  the 
nature  of  the  turf  are  often  such  as  to 
decide  definitely  whether  the  green  ought 
to  be  protected  in  front  or  left  open.  The 
unguarded  entrance  is  good  in  certain 


GOLF  COURSE  ARCHITECTURE      35 

circumstances.  If  the  ground  within,  say, 
forty  yards  of  the  hole,  slopes  from  either 
left  or  right  towards  the  other  side  of  the 
fairway,  the  approach  is  as  difficult  as  any 
bunker  could  make  it.  The  running  shot 
will  not  take  the  slope  properly  unless  you 
play  it  with  slice  or  pull,  according  to 
whether  the  incline  is  from  the  right  or 
the  left,  while  to  pitch  over  all  of  the 
thought-provoking  slant  and  stop  near 
the  hole,  calls  for  a  very  fine  shot  indeed. 

We  have  now  fixed  upon  fourteen  holes, 
and  the  remaining  four  might  measure 
anything  from  420  to  580  yards.  I  do 
not  think  that  any  hole  need  run  to  600 
yards ;  as  a  rule,  the  very  long  hole 
affords  no  better  entertainment  (perhaps 
not  such  good  fun)  as  hitting  a  ball  across 
Hyde  Park — if  anybody  has  tried  the 
latter  diversion.  At  the  soo-yard  test, 
I  would  not  have  a  hazard  rearing  its 
menacing  face  at  the  player  as  he  stood 
upon  the  teeing-ground.  Here — and  here 
alone — he  might  be  allowed  to  use  every 


36  HOW  TO  PLAY  GOLF 

device  in  his  power  to  obtain  distance, 
untrammelled  by  the  thought  of  bunkers 
ahead.  I  would  put  the  first  cross-bunker 
about  360  yards  from  the  tee.  If  he  could 
drive  into  that,  he  would  be  a  martyr  to 
his  greatness  and  the  dry  ground.  Nor 
would  I  worry  particularly  about  piling 
up  trouble  in  front  of  the  green ;  the 
prodigious  driver  could  let  himself  go  at 
this  kind  of  hole.  But  he  would  have  to 
keep  straight,  and  the  open  gateway  to 
the  green  would  not  be  expansive. 

We  have  now  a  course  comprising  four 
more  or  less  clearly  defined  types  of  holes 
(nicely  assorted,  let  us  hope)  and  giving  a 
total  distance  of  about  6,200  yards,  which, 
I  venture  to  say,  is  long  enough  for  any- 
body. It  is  impossible,  I  know,  for  this 
system  of  architecture  to  be  put  into 
force  as  one  might  measure  off  perches 
of  ground,  but  its  general  principles  are 
capable  of  adoption,  and  they  are  offered 
as  the  best  that  I  can  conceive  in  the 
modern  conditions  of  golf.  They  tend  to 


GOLF  COURSE  ARCHITECTURE      37 

promote  jthe  true  sport.  I  have  no  sym- 
pathy with  the  encouragement  of  the  flat, 
running  shot  for  the  long  game.  It  is 
neither  more  nor  less  than  a  subterfuge. 

And  now  for  a  few  general  details. 
Except  at  short  holes,  or  where  short 
approaches  constituted  the  natural 
sequence  to  good  drives,  I  would  have 
the  back  of  the  green  guarded  only  at 
a  respectful  distance — say,  from  ten  to 
fifteen  yards  beyond  the  hole.  It  is  a 
good  thing  to  tempt  a  player  to  go  boldly 
for  the  pin,  and  he  is  apt  to  become 
frightened  (and  reasonably  so)  when  he 
knows  that  the  slightest  excess  of  courage 
may  bring  irretrievable  disaster  upon  his 
head.  It  is  a  great  compliment  to  pay 
to  a  course  to  say  that  it  encourages  bold 
approaching.  The  green  which  is  closely 
hemmed  on  all  sides  by  bunkers  and  which, 
in  the  distance,  looks  hardly  big  enough 
to  accommodate  a  foursome,  may  inspire 
skilful  iron  play  in  some  instances,  but  it 
is  much  more  likely  to  generate  a  spirit 


38  HOW  TO  PLAY  GOLF 

of  timidity  among  golfers.  So,  without 
being  indulgent,  let  us  take  care  to  be  fair 
in  regard  to  the  amount  of  room  that  we 
leave  at  the  back  of  the  hole.  Better  is  it 
to  leave  too  much  than  too  little. 

The  flanks  of  every  green,  as  of  the  fair- 
way, should  be  literally  bestrewn  with 
difficulties.  There  is  some  excuse  for  a 
rubber-cored  ball  going  farther  than  we 
had  intended  it  to  go ;  but  there  is 
no  excuse  for  its  travelling  crookedly. 
Rough — so  long  as  it  really  is  rough — is 
a  greater  embarrassment  than  almost  any 
bunker.  It  is  usually  possible  to  see  at 
a  glance  exactly  how  one  will  attempt  to 
play  a  shot  out  of  a  bunker,  but  a  ball  in 
the  rough  often  gives  cause  for  deep 
cogitation.  So  let  there  be  plenty  of 
trouble  on  the  wings — bunkers  as  well  as 
other  agents  of  distress.  And,  at  this 
point,  I  should  like  to  express  the  opinion 
that  the  punishment  ought  to  be  as  severe 
for  the  puller  as  for  the  slicer.  For 
some  reason,  the  sentiment  has  grown 


GOLF  COURSE  ARCHITECTURE      39 

up  in  golf  that  pulling  is  not  nearly  so 
heinous  an  offence  as  slicing.  I  cannot 
see  any  justification  for  such  a  judgment. 
It  is  wrong  to  be  off  the  course  on  either 
side,  and  it  is  no  less  wrong  to  be  off  it  on 
the  left  than  on  the  right.  Yet  I  have 
played  on  many  links  where,  apparently, 
care  had  been  taken  not  to  severely  punish 
the  puller,  while  the  slicer  had  been  afforded 
enormous  scope  for  working  out  his  salva- 
tion in  a  region  of  sand  and  unpolished 
country. 

It  is  desirable  from  every  point  of  view 
that  the  course  should  be  made  to  look  as 
natural  as  possible.  The  position  of  your 
hazard  is  a  matter  of  calculation  inspired 
by  a  good  knowledge  of  the  game  ;  the 
contour  of  it  must  be  governed  by  a  sense 
of  artistry.  The  shape  of  the  hazard  may 
not  be  of  great  intrinsic  importance,  for 
it  is  just  as  bad  to  lose  a  stroke  in  a  little 
pot  bunker,  precise  in  its  roundness,  as  it 
is  to  suffer  a  similar  set-back  in  the  rugged 
magnificence  of  a  mighty  sand-hill.  But 


40  HOW  TO  PLAY  GOLF 

while  I  have  put  in  a  plea  for  the  restora- 
tion of  the  cross-bunker  because  it  would 
revive  the  true  golfing  shot,  I  certainly 
would  not  suggest  a  revival  of  the  ribbon 
bunkers  which,  ten  years  ago,  stretched 
across  courses  in  deadly  dull  straight  lines, 
very  prim  and  prosaic  in  their  pattern. 
A  chain  of  three  or  four  fairly  large  pot 
bunkers,  with  ragged  and  irregular  out- 
lines, is  often  more  pleasing  to  the  eye 
than  a  continuous  hazard  from  side  to 
side.  And  it  is  just  as  effective.  So,  too, 
in  regard  to  the  guarding  of  the  green. 

Pot  bunkers  scattered  here  and  there 
just  off  the  line  are  good,  because  they 
exercise  an  extraordinary  magnetism  on 
the  golfer,  and  it  should  be  his  duty  to 
overcome  that  influence.  An  instance 
which  I  have  in  mind  is  the  pot  on  the 
way  to  the  ninth  at  St  Andrews.  It  is 
no  bigger  than  a  dining-room  table,  but 
the  number  of  shots  that  go  into  it 
is  amazing.  For  inland  clubs,  the  great 
drawback  to  the  system  of  bunkering 


GOLF  COURSE  ARCHITECTURE      41 

which  I  have  put  forward  is  the  cost  of 
sand.  It  is  an  expensive  luxury,  and  at 
many  places  the  exchequer  will  not  permit 
of  repeated  renewals  of  the  supplies  which 
errant  golfers  have  scattered  to  the  winds. 
But  there  is  much  to  be  said  for  grassy 
hazards — punishing  places  of  much  the 
same  size  and  shape  as  bunkers,  but  with 
rough  ground  instead  of  sand  as  the  funda- 
mental feature.  Rough,  as  I  have  already 
said,  is  harder  to  get  out  of  than  sand. 
The  one  objection  to  grassy  hazards  is 
that  they  are  apt  to  become  wet  in  the 
winter,  but,  if  the  ground  be  properly 
drained,  they  need  be  little,  if  any,  worse 
than  the  other  parts  of  the  course. 

Still,  sand  is  the  proper  foundation  of 
a  bunker,  and  where  the  latter  is  dug  and 
shaped  by  the  hand  of  man,  I  would 
advance  a  principle  which  is  all  too  often 
ignored.  Frequently  one  finds  the  ex- 
panse of  hazard  practically  level  with  the 
fairway,  while  a  bulwark  of  earth  rises  on 
the  far  side  of  the  bunker  like  a  rampart 


42  HOW  TO  PLAY  GOLF 

that  has  been  built  in  defence  of  a  fort. 
This  may  be  satisfactory  enough  as  a  test 
for  the  tee  shot,  but  it  is  not  the  proper 
kind  of  bunker  for  the  approach.  It  is 
usually  almost  as  simple  to  dig  down  on 
the  near  side  and  allow  the  bottom  of  the 
bunker  to  slope  up  gradually  to  the  level 
of  the  green.  The  player  then  has  a  sight  of 
the  hole,  no  matter  from  what  distance 
he  is  approaching.  This  uninterrupted 
vision  is  important,  because  it  is  almost 
impossible  to  tell,  by  merely  catching  a 
glimpse  of  the  flag,  the  length  of  shot 
required.  There  is  a  lot  of  flukiness  about 
aiming  at  the  flag.  The  golfer  presented 
with  a  semi-blind  approach  will  do  well 
to  go  forward  until  he  can  see  the  pin  at 
the  point  where  it  enters  the  ground. 

The  mounds  which  have  become  so 
popular  during  the  past  year  or  two  are 
good  so  long  as  they  possess  the  correct 
features.  A  club  which  had  decided  to 
adopt  this  means  of  relieving  the  monotony 
of  a  flat  course  could  not  do  better  than 


GOLF  COURSE  ARCHITECTURE      43 

work  on  the  plan  of  the  originators,  the 
Mid-Surrey  Club.  Many  clubs  have  in- 
troduced mounds  of  the  wrong  kind, 
with  steep  faces,  which  make  the  ball  dart 
off  at  any  angle,  sometimes  for  good  and 
on  other  occasions  for  ill,  and  which  pre- 
sent a  general  appearance  of  unnatural- 
ness,  as  though  a  number  of  earthern 
cones  had  been  purchased  and  dotted 
about  the  course.  Another  point  worthy 
of  attention  is  the  desirability  of  having 
undulating  putting-greens  instead  of  flat 
ones.  Nowadays,  there  is  a  disposition  in 
many  places  to  make  a  green  as  much 
as  possible  like  a  billiard  table,  but  it  is 
not  conducive  to  good  putting.  I  fear 
that  I  possess — and  deserve — a  most  un- 
enviable reputation  as  a  holer-out,  but 
I  know  that  I  can  generally  putt  better 
when  I  have  to  "  borrow  "  some  ground 
to  allow  for  a  slope  than  when  the  stroke 
is  perfectly  straightforward.  The  reason 
is,  I  think,  that  the  sloping  green  makes 
the  player  ponder,  whereas  on  a  flat  green 


44  HOW  TO  PLAY  GOLF 

he  is  prone  to  come  to  the  conclusion  that 
there  is  not  much  to  consider.  And  con- 
centration of  the  mind  is  the  surest  means 
to  successful  putting.  There  is  no  other 
royal  road  to  triumph. 

This,  then,  is  my  idea  of  a  good  course 
for  modern  golf.  It  should  make  the 
player  revert  to  the  old  desire  to  obtain 
the  longest  possible  carry  from  the  tee, 
and  then  he  will  soon  discover  how  to  play 
the  lofted  approach  with  an  iron  club— 
the  shot  which  has  almost  disappeared 
from  the  game,  and  the  disappearance  of 
which  has  done  so  much  to  lower  the 
standard  of  play.  We  can  make  golf 
nearly  as  good  a  game  as  it  used  to  be 
if  we  secure  the  right  kind  of  hazards, 
and  check  the  craze  for  the  running  shot, 
which  the  rubber-cored  ball  incited  and 
which,  in  many  places,  has  been  deliber- 
ately encouraged  by  the  abandonment  of 
cross-bunkers. 


CHAPTER  III 

EQUIPMENT:  SOME  TRIFLES  THAT 
AMOUNT  TO  MUCH 

GOLF  is  a  strange  game  :  it  enchants 
and  aggravates,  it  flatters  and  dis- 
appoints, it  rears  up  the  player  to  believe 
in  his  efficiency  and  then  lets  him  down 
with  a  crash.  It  is  a  kind  of  kaleidoscope 
interrupted  at  intervals  by  nightmares. 
It  no  sooner  elevates  its  devotee  than  it 
dispirits  him;  it  no  sooner  dispirits  him 
than  it  elates  him.  That  is  the  secret  of 
its  seductiveness,  and  at  the  back  of  it  all 
is  an  illimitable  vista  of  hope.  The  un- 
quenchable consolation  of  the  golfer's  life 
is  that  if  this  or  the  other  means  fail  him 
in  his  quest  of  success,  he  can  try  other 
media.  To  the  player  who  is  in  the 
throes  of  incapacity  with  a  certain  club,  a 
new  implement  is  ethereal;  it  holds  out 


45 


46  HOW  TO  PLAY  GOLF 

unbounded  promise.  I  suppose  that  no- 
where is  there  a  golfer — good,  bad,  or 
indifferent — who  feels  that  he  will  never 
light  on  better  instruments  for  the  purpose 
of  hitting  the  ball  than  those  which  he 
already  possesses.  In  times  of  blackest 
despair,  he  sees  salvation  through  an 
avenue  of  shafts  and  heads.  I  know  of 
an  open  champion  who,  at  the  beginning 
of  a  season,  abandoned  every  one  of  the 
clubs  that  had  served  him  well  for  years, 
and  equipped  himself  with  an  entirely 
fresh  set.  He  had  not  been  satisfied  with 
his  game  for  some  months,  and  he  wanted 
to  start  life  again. 

That  is  the  best  of  a  new  club  ;  it  seems 
to  mark  the  beginning  of  a  new  career. 
The  idea  may  be  pure  imagination,  but 
imagination  has  a  practical  value  in  golf. 
Faith-cures  are  everyday  dispensations  of 
Providence.  Give  a  player  a  club  which 
he  has  never  previously  used,  and  which 
he  fancies  from  top  to  sole,  and  he  will 
often  do  great  things  with  it,  for  no  better 


EQUIPMENT  47 

reason  than  that  he  likes  it.  He  is  filled 
with  the  sentiment  that  it  is  the  deliverer 
for  which  he  has  been  searching  for  months, 
and  that  is  sufficient  to  enable  him  to 
improve  his  results. 

Experience  alone  teaches  a  golfer  what 
clubs  suit  him  best ;  it  is  only  when  he 
has  been  playing  for  some  time  that  he 
begins  to  wonder  whether  he  is  handi- 
capping himself  by  using  unsuitable  in- 
struments. At  the  outset,  he  may  go 
to  a  shop  and  purchase  a  brassie,  an  iron, 
a  mashie,  and  a  putter.  He  takes  hold 
of  them  and  flourishes  them  ;  yes,  they 
appear  to  be  all  right.  He  comes  away 
happy.  He  takes  his  first  lesson,  and  is 
perhaps  told  to  grip  them  differently  from 
the  way  in  which  he  held  them  in  the  shop. 
Then  it  is  that  their  beauties  begin  to 
vanish.  In  a  little  while  they  become 
monsters  of  ungainliness  and  discomfort. 
They  seem  to  be  dragging  his  hands  down  ; 
they  are  either  too  long  or  too  short ;  too 
thick  or  too  thin  ;  they  are  abortions.  The 


48  HOW  TO  PLAY  GOLF 

absolute  beginner  cannot  do  better  than 
borrow  an  old  club  from  a  professional, 
and  discover  his  natural  stance,  length  of 
swing,  and  other  individualities  before  he 
proceeds  to  purchase  a  set  of  implements. 
The  professional  will  be  able  to  tell  him 
at  the  end  of  ten  minutes  what  sort  of  tools 
will  suit  him  best. 

Let  us  assume,  however,  that  we  are 
dealing  with  the  case  of  the  player  who 
already  has  his  outfit,  and  who  is  con- 
cerned with  the  question  as  to  whether  it 
is  the  best  that  the  resources  of  the  club- 
making  trade  can  provide  for  his  benefit. 
The  frequency  with  which  one  sees  a  golfer 
using  wooden  instruments  of  different 
degrees  of  "  lie  "  is  extraordinary.  Every- 
body must  find  out  for  himself  what  "  lie  " 
of  the  club  he  likes  best ;  the  choice  varies 
even  amongst  champions.  As  a  rule,  it 
should  be  in  the  nature  of  a  happy  medium  ; 
neither  too  upright  nor  too  flat ;  for  the 
rest,  personal  fancies  may  well  govern  the 
selection.  But  having  lighted  on  the 


EQUIPMENT  49 

"  lie "    which    makes    him    feel    confident 
when  he  uses — let  us  say — the  driver,  the 
player  should  take  care  to  have  the  same 
"  lie "   in  his  brassie.     Yet  how  often  a 
difference   exists !     In   many   cases,    it   is 
the  cause  of  that  despairing  cry — "  Hang 
it !     I  shall  never  be  r.ble  to  use  a  brassie  !  " 
The     unfortunate     bungler     through     the 
green  is  adopting  the  same  stance  and  the 
same  swing  and  trying  to  play  the  same 
sort    of   shot   with    two    clubs   that   have 
practically    nothing    in    common.     If    he 
has  an   "  upright "   driver  and  a  "  flat  " 
brassie  and  stands  the  same  for  both,  as 
he  is  nearly  sure  to  do,  only  the  toe  of  the 
brassie  will  be  touching  the  turf  when  he 
addresses   the   ball.     Or,   with   the   "  lie " 
of   the   implements   transposed,    only   the 
heel  of  the  brassie  will  be  grounded  during 
the  address.     He  might  overcome  the  diffi- 
culty by  altering  his  stance  for  each  club, 
but  it  would  be  a  pity  to  make  a  necessity 
of  such  a  change  when  he  could  avoid  it  by 
having  a  driver  and  a  brassie  of  similar  build. 

4 


50  HOW  TO  PLAY  GOLF 

I  presume  that  most  golfers  appreciate 
the  fact  that  the  shaft  of  the  driver  ought 
to  be  a  little  more  whippy  than  that  of 
the  brassie.  I  do  not  mean  to  suggest 
that  the  former  should  have  the  pliability 
of  a  cane,  but  it  is  indisputable  that  a 
certain  amount  of  "  feel  "  in  it  facilitates 
the  swing.  The  driver  does  not  come 
into  contact  with  the  ground  during  the 
execution  of  a  tee  shot  (at  any  rate,  it 
should  not),  so  that  a  reasonable  element 
of  suppleness  cannot  operate  adversely. 
And  it  certainly  renders  the  swing 
pleasanter  and  stronger.  The  brassie 
needs  a  slightly  heavier  and  stiffer  shaft 
because  it  has  to  cut  through  the  grass ;  in 
bad  lies,  it  even  has  to  take  some  turf. 
A  whippy  shaft  in  a  brassie  would  be 
disastrous,  because  it  would  bend  when  it 
came  to  blows  with  the  earth.  Some- 
times, in  ripe  old  age,  the  club  develops 
from  constant  use  some  degree  of  liveli- 
ness. We  do  not  like  to  part  with  a 
trusted  friend,  especially  when  it  happens 


EQUIPMENT  51 

to  comprise  a  really  excellent  shaft,  but 
it  is  as  well  to  be  on  the  look  out  for  this 
tendency  to  sprightliness  on  the  part  of 
the  brassie  of  long  service,  and  it  is  often 
a  good  tip  to  have  it  converted  into  a 
driver.  Frequently  it  has  just  the  right 
amount  of  "  feel  "  in  it  for  the  purpose. 

Be  it  remembered  that  the  driver  in 
constant  use  is  apt  to  become  in  course 
of  time  too  supple.  It  is  employed  pro- 
bably four  or  five  times  more  than  the 
brassie,  and  the  busy  life  that  it  leads 
causes  it  to  develop  a  lot  of  springiness. 
The  keen  golfer  should  pause  occasionally 
to  consider  this  matter ;  it  is  of  some 
importance.  He  should  note  the  chang- 
ing characteristics  of  his  clubs,  especially 
the  wooden  ones,  which,  owing  to  the 
greater  delicateness  of  their  shafts,  are 
more  likely  to  alter  than  the  iron-headed 
tools. 

It  is  always  as  well  to  carry  two 
drivers — one  fairly  stiff  and  the  other 
moderately  supple.  There  are  times  when 


52  HOW  TO  PLAY  GOLF 

you  are  convinced  that  you  can  hit 
anything — from  an  ant  to  a  golf  ball. 
Your  spirits  are  so  high  that  you  feel  that 
the  whole  world  is  at  your  mercy  on  the 
links.  A  man  in  this  state  of  exhilaration 
is  frequently  shocked  to  find  that,  when 
he  begins  playing,  the  shots  do  not  come 
off  very  well  after  all.  The  reason  is 
usually  to  be  found  in  his  exuberance. 
He  is  so  filled  with  natural  fire  that  he 
cannot  swing  with  measured  regularity ; 
he  is  so  replete  with  confidence  that  he 
takes  the  club  back  like  lightning.  Then 
is  the  time  to  use  the  stiff  driver.  It  will 
act  as  a  brake  on  his  excessive  hilarity  ;  it 
will  hold  him  in  check  ;  it  simply  will  not 
be  whirled  out  of  its  tautness.  When  the 
golfer  is  subdued,  and  is  swinging  in  a 
decorous  manner,  let  him  use  the  more 
whippy  shaft.  Then  it  will  help  him. 
It  will  put  life  into  his  golf.  The  truth 
of  these  observations  I  have  proved  to 
my  own  satisfaction  on  many  occasions. 
It  is  one  of  the  best  of  hints  to  carry  two 


EQUIPMENT  53 

drivers.  The  frequency  with  which  one 
will  prove  friendly  when  the  other  has 
become  peevish  is  astonishing.  The  ex- 
planation is  to  be  found,  I  think,  in  the 
theory  that  the  difference  in  the  whippi- 
ness  operates  in  connexion  with  the 
variations  in  the  pace  of  the  swing.  None 
of  us  swing  at  just  the  same  speed  every 
day. 

These  are  points  to  which  professionals 
are  always  giving  attention ;  they  are 
matters  well  worthy  of  consideration.  It 
is  only  natural  that  professionals  should 
inquire  into  such  matters  more  deeply 
than  amateurs ;  the  former  have  their 
livelihood  to  obtain  by  means  of  their 
golf.  They  have  to  think  of  every  possi- 
bility, and  probe  deeply  into  the  questions 
of  cause  and  effect.  An  amateur  lives  in 
a  land  of  hope  which  either  realizes  ex- 
pectations or  proves  barren.  When  he  is 
off  his  driving — well,  he  is  off  his  driving. 
There,  as  a  rule,  the  matter  rests.  He 
does  not  often  ruminate  as  to  the  reason. 


54  HOW  TO  PLAY  GOLF 

It  seldom  occurs  to  him  that  the  pace  of 
his  swing  may  be  doing  the  mischief,  and 
that,  if  he  has  only  one  driver  in  his  bag, 
no  rule  can  prevent  him  from  trying  his 
brassie  for  the  tee  shots. 

Professionals  have  long  since  come  to 
the  conclusion  that  the  wooden  clubs 
used  by  many  indifferent  players  are  too 
long.  It  is  easier  to  control  a  short  driver 
than  a  long  one  ;  with  the  former,  you  have 
your  nose  to  the  grindstone,  so  to  speak, 
and  seem  to  be  in  a  condition  of  better 
concentration  for  the  task  than  with  an 
implement  of  unwieldy  length.  Still  I 
have  no  desire  to  be  dogmatic  on  the 
point.  There  are  people  who  can  control 
long  clubs ;  it  must  be  rather  difficult 
work,  but  they  are  capable  of  performing 
it.  That  being  so,  they  may  be  allowed 
to  play  in  peace. 

Iron  clubs  should  be  stiff ;  they  should 
have  no  "  give  "  in  them  at  all  that  the 
player  can  distinguish.  They  have  to  at 
least  graze  the  turf  every  time,  often  they 


EQUIPMENT  55 

have  to  go  into  the  soil  in  order  to  get 
behind  the  ball.  And  it  is  certain  that 
excavation  on  even  the  most  modest  scale 
cannot  be  properly  carried  out  with  a 
tool  that  bends.  There  are  heretics  who, 
at  this  point,  may  come  up  for  the  humble 
judgment  of  a  conscientious  golfer.  They 
are  the  people  who  use  nothing  but  irons 
— even  from  the  tee.  They  are  not  only 
unorthodox  and  blind  to  their  own  in- 
terests ;  they  are  faint-hearted.  They 
think  that  they  cannot  master  wooden 
clubs,  and  they  have  not  the  courage  to 
make  a  determined  effort  to  do  so.  They 
seek  to  evade  the  difficulties  of  the  game 
by  accomplishing  their  tee  shots  with  a 
driving  mashie  or  kindred  instrument. 
They  will  never  make  good  players,  and 
they  will  never  know  the  full  joy  of  the 
links. 

In  the  case  of  a  golfer  of  some  experi- 
ence, instinct  is  the  best  adviser  in  the 
choice  of  a  club.  As  you  take  the  creation 
in  your  hands,  you  can  generally  tell  at 


56  HOW  TO  PLAY  GOLF 

once  whether  it  is  just  the  thing  that  you 
have  been  wanting  for  a  long  while.  This, 
I  know,  is  a  commonly  accepted  truth  ; 
yet  there  are  players  who  judge  largely 
by  the  appearance  of  the  implement. 
Looks  are  often  deceiving ;  they  ought 
to  have  no  influence  in  the  making  of  the 
final  selection.  A  club  that  is  by  no  means 
pleasing  to  the  eye  is  sometimes  found  to 
be  the  best  of  the  bunch  when  the  pro- 
spector tries  the  "  feel  "  of  it.  Yet  many 
a  golfer  passes  it  by  because  its  looks 
are  against  it.  Lancewood  makes  a  very 
pretty  shaft ;  people  are  apt  to  be  im- 
mensely impressed  by  its  aspect.  It  is 
certainly  the  most  handsome  of  all  woods 
employed  in  connexion  with  club-making  ; 
but  personally  I  would  not  recommend 
its  use.  It  has  the  advantage  of  stiffness, 
but  it  is  too  heavy  for  iron  clubs,  and  the 
same  drawback  in  the  matter  of  excessive 
weight  renders  it  a  difficult  wood  with 
which  to  make  a  brassie  of  pleasant  "  feel  " 
and  balance.  Some  of  the  weight  can  be 


EQUIPMENT  57 

removed  by  filing  down  the  shaft  towards 
the  head,  but  the  result  is  not  always 
happy.  In  addition,  it  is  so  hard  a  wood 
that,  in  the  case  of  a  driver  or  a  brassie, 
there  is  difficulty  in  inducing  the  shaft 
and  the  head  to  remain  in  adherence. 
Lancewood  has  a  soul  above  adhesive 
substances  ;  it  declines  to  allow  glue  to 
bite  it  with  the  requisite  strength.  One 
does  not  see  a  lot  of  it,  and  I  fear  that 
it  will  never  satisfactorily  solve  problems 
that  may  be  presented  by  a  famine  of 
other  woods.  So  long  as  we  can  obtain 
good  hickory  for  our  shafts,  we  ought  to 
be  glad. 

Golf  is  made  up  of  details,  and  it  is  the 
player  who  considers  all  the  small  points 
who  succeeds  in  the  end.  The  correct 
swing  performed  with  suitable  clubs  con- 
stitutes three-quarters  of  the  battle  ;  when 
both  sides  have  the  capacity  and  the 
equipment  here  indicated,  the  victory 
goes  to  the  man  who  gives  the  greater 
amount  of  thought  to  matters  of  seemingly 


58  HOW  TO  PLAY  GOLF 

minor  importance.  Let  us  take,  for 
instance,  the  preparations  on  the  teeing- 
ground.  A  first-class  golfer  is  often  seen 
shifting  uneasily  for  several  seconds  about 
this  confined  area,  apparently  searching 
for  a  nice  piece  of  grass  on  which  to 
build  a  tee.  I  know  that  thousands  of 
people  imagine  that  he  is  hunting  for 
such  a  spot.  They  must  marvel  at  his 
fastidiousness,  and  thank  Providence  that 
they  have  not  become  so  well-known  as 
to  justify  such  affectation.  But  the  good 
golfer  is  not  so  silly  as  to  want  a  choice 
square  inch  of  turf  on  which  to  deposit  a 
little  sand.  He  is  simply  feeling  with  his 
feet  for  a  comfortable  stance.  There  is 
only  one  stage  in  the  playing  of  each  hole 
where  he  has  such  a  choice,  and  he  makes 
the  most  of  it.  That  he  is  looking  at  the 
ground  all  the  while  is  due  to  the  fact  that 
it  would,  in  any  case,  be  rather  silly  to 
gaze  into  the  faces  of  the  spectators  or  up 
to  the  heavens.  The  difference  between 
an  easy  stance  and  an  uneasy  one  on  the 


EQUIPMENT  59 

teeing-ground  often  means  the  difference 
between  a  good  drive  and  a  bad  one.  Yet 
I  am  certain  that  a  great  many  golfers 
really  do  hunt  for  a  dainty  piece  of  grass 
on  which  to  make  a  tee,  although  its  im- 
portance compared  with  that  of  a  pleasant 
stance  is  hardly  worth  considering.  Often, 
too,  a  player  is  seen  re-teeing  his  ball  be- 
cause he  finds  that  he  cannot  settle  down 
properly  in  the  place  which  he  has  selected. 
The  change  is  disturbing.  It  is  better  to 
obtain  the  right  spot  at  the  outset. 

Very  few  caddies  make  good  tees.  The 
ball  should  be  just  perched  on  the  sand 
so  that  none  of  the  latter  can  be  seen  ; 
the  ball  should  seem  to  be  sitting  up  clear 
of  the  ground,  supported  by  nothing. 
That  optical  delusion  gives  you  confidence 
to  hit  it  well ;  the  eye  is  not  attracted  by 
the  presence  of  a  setting.  Often  a  player 
who  wants  a  lower  tee  will  give  the  top  of 
the  ball  a  knock  and  so  push  it  into  the 
sand.  I  honestly  believe  that  many  shots 
are  spoilt  in  that  way  ;  you  cannot  always 


60  HOW  TO  PLAY  GOLF 

obtain  in  such  circumstances  the  stroke 
that  would  be  secured  with  the  perfectly- 
poised  ball.  There  are  men  who,  at  times, 
almost  bunker  themselves  in  the  tee.  The 
less  sand  that  you  have  for  the  purpose, 
the  richer  will  be  the  ultimate  reward. 

The  reader  who  likes  to  take  his  golf 
in  a  spirit  of  light-hearted  irresponsibility 
may  come  to  the  conclusion  that  in  offer- 
ing these  hints  I  am  reducing  instruction 
to  a  very  fine  point.  I  can  only  assure 
him  that  the  best  players  owe  much  of 
their  success  to  their  attention  to  small 
details,  and  that  if  his  temperament  be 
such  that  he  cannot  bother  to  hunt  for  a 
good  stance  when  he  is  allowed  a  choice, 
or  concern  himself  about  the  character 
of  his  tee,  he  will  probably  remain  in 
possession  of  a  handicap  of  more  or  less 
considerable  proportions.  Not  that  care- 
ful consideration  of  these  matters  will 
alone  suffice  to  make  him  a  good  golfer 
(the  game  would  be  very  easy  if  a  perfect 
tee  meant  a  perfect  drive),  but  they  will 


EQUIPMENT  61 

train  him  to  be  careful  in  his  attitude 
towards  the  whole  pursuit,  and  I  am  sure 
that  nobody  can  fare  well  on  the  links 
without  thinking  hard  all  the  while — 
reflecting  on  the  cause  of  his  wrong-doings 
and  the  best  way  of  putting  them  right. 
Golf  is  a  monument  composed  of  small 
items — the  very  swing  is  made  up  of 
details,  each  important  for  the  production 
of  the  desired  end. 

Apart  from  the  matter  of  obtaining  a 
comfortable  stance,  it  frequently  pays  the 
golfer  to  consider  from  which  side  of  the 
teeing-ground  he  shall  drive.  Yet  how 
many  players  bother  about  such  a  point  ? 
Very  few.  The  majority  select  a  spot 
somewhere  near  the  middle  of  the  space 
between  the  discs.  Yet,  if  you  have  an 
out-of-bounds  area  on  either  the  right  or 
the  left,  it  is  surely  a  sound  idea  to  make 
your  tee  as  far  as  possible  from  that  evil 
region.  "  Out  of  bounds "  exercises  a 
sort  of  magnetic  influence  on  many  an 
indifferent  golfer  ;  it  seems  to  coax  him 


62  HOW  TO  PLAY  GOLF 

to  hit  his  ball  into  it.  He  knows  that  it 
is  there  ;  that  is  the  whole  secret  of  its 
power  over  him.  He  may  help  to  remove 
himself  from  the  zone  of  its  influence  by 
starting  from  a  point  as  far  from  it  as 
the  limits  of  the  teeing-ground  will  permit. 
If  you  are  playing  for  an  intentional  slice, 
it  is  always  best,  I  think,  to  tee  up  on 
the  right-hand  side  of  the  starting-place, 
because  you  have  then  more  room  into 
which  to  aim.  It  is  necessary  to  aim  at 
an  unseen  point  in  the  air  ;  there  is  just 
one  point,  you  feel,  at  which  the  wind 
should  hold  up  the  ball,  and  enter  into  the 
conspiracy  with  the  slice  to  bring  the 
object  back  to  the  course.  You  can  see 
that  point  more  clearly  when  you  are 
playing  out  to  it  than  when  you  are  going 
almost  straight  at  it.  Similarly,  for  a 
pulled  shot,  it  is  desirable  to  begin  on  the 
left-hand  side  of  the  teeing-ground. 

Personally,  I  recommend  thin  grips  for 
all  clubs.  I  tried  thick  grips  for  a  short 
time  ;  but  did  not  get  on  at  all  well  with 


EQUIPMENT  63 

what  I  called  my  "  cricket  bats."  They 
were  a  desperate  remedy  that  proved 
worse  than  the  disease.  Nor  do  I  believe 
in  the  specially-shaped  grips  which  are 
made  to  fit  the  fingers.  At  first  blush, 
the  idea  of  such  a  handle  seems  excellent. 
Why  should  the  grip  be  round  ?  Why 
should  it  not  be  of  such  a  shape  as  to  guide 
the  hand  to  the  proper  position  on  the 
club  ?  I  have  experimented  with  these 
devices,  and  my  experience  of  them  is 
that  they  succeed  so  effectually  in  their 
object  that  they  render  gripping  far  too 
easy.  They  so  greatly  facilitate  the  task 
that  there  is  little  about  which  to  think, 
and,  as  a  result,  they  encourage  a  vice- 
like  hold.  They  are  so  simple  to  grasp 
that  one  instinctively  grasps  them  tightly 
— much  too  tightly — with  all  the  fingers. 
The  ordinary  round  grip  is  less  accommo- 
dating, and,  as  a  consequence,  it  induces 
the  player  to  consider  just  what  he  is 
doing.  I  am  convinced  that  it  is  bad  to 
have  the  shape  of  the  handle  so  inviting 


64  HOW  TO  PLAY  GOLF 

to  the  fingers  that  they  involuntarily  grip 
it  like  grim  death.  And  that  is  the  draw- 
back to  various  innovations  that  have 
made  their  appearance  in  connexion  with 
golf-club  handles. 

From  small  and  often  unconsidered 
sources,  great  assistance  is  obtainable. 
For  instance,  man  is  lucky  in  his  right  to 
wear  braces  so  long  as  he  wear  the  right 
sort  of  braces.  They  should  be  trained 
by  use  to  work  in  harmony  with  the  swing 
of  the  player ;  they  should  become  to  all 
intents  and  purposes  part  of  that  swing. 
Then  they  will  help  it  and  control  it.  I 
would  no  more  think  of  going  out  to  play 
for  a  championship  in  a  new  pair  of  braces 
than  of  trying  to  do  the  four  rounds  on 
my  head.  I  should  not  know  how  to 
swing.  Nearly  every  professional  of  note 
has  his  braces  that  fit  all  his  movements, 
and  they  are  treasured  possessions.  They 
may  not  look  very  smart,  but  he  would 
not  exchange  them  for  the  most  exquisite 
creation  that  could  be  brought  to  bear 


EQUIPMENT  65 

upon  his  shoulders.  There  is  nothing 
worse  than  having  to  teach  proper  golfing 
manners  to  a  new  pair  of  braces.  Some 
players  prefer  belts.  The  latter,  I  think, 
give  the  shoulders  too  much  freedom,  and 
encourage  the  fatal  fault  of  overswinging. 
Braces  are  best,  but  they  must  be  on 
friendly  terms  with  their  owner. 

Whether  you  wear  boots  or  shoes  should 
be  governed  in  a  large  degree  by  the  extent 
to  which  you  use  your  ankles  when  playing. 
I  would  certainly  recommend  a  beginner 
to  support  the  cult  of  shoe  worship,  be- 
cause his  early  studies  may  well  be  directed 
towards  the  learning  of  how  to  screw  the 
left  ankle  properly.  And  shoes  will  render 
the  task  easier.  If,  having  mastered  the 
knack,  he  finds  his  fancy  turning  lightly 
towards  boots,  I  have  not  the  smallest 
desire  to  dissuade  him  from  effecting  the 
change.  Braid  and  Taylor  always  play 
in  boots.  Personally,  I  prefer  shoes  ;  I 
make  a  lot  of  use  of  my  ankles,  and  like 
them  free.  In  any  case,  very  thick  soles 


66  HOW  TO  PLAY  GOLF 

are  bad.  As  the  left  foot  twists  from  the 
joints  of  the  big  toe  during  the  upward 
swing,  the  boot  or  shoe  should  be  prepared 
to  "  give  "  a  little.  The  foot  should  not 
be  encased  as  though  in  a  vice.  If  you 
cannot  screw  your  left  ankle  into  the 
proper  position  without  pushing  your  heel 
out,  it  is  possible  that  the  sole  of  your 
boot  or  shoe  is  too  substantial.  There  is 
not  much  "  give  "  in  a  massive  chunk  of 
leather. 

Collars  are  by  no  means  unimportant 
details  of  dress.  It  is  as  well  to  have 
something  round  your  neck  for  appear- 
ance's sake,  but  it  is  bad  when  that  some- 
thing stands  two  inches  or  more  in  height. 
I  can  assure  the  reader  that  most  of  the 
professionals  have  their  collars  specially 
made  for  them.  They  are  an  inch  high. 
I  mean,  of  course,  that  the  collars  are  an 
inch  high — not  the  professionals.  Often 
one  sees  a  golfer  playing  in  neck-gear  of 
enormous  dimensions.  As  he  takes  the 
club  back  the  chances  are  that  the  collar 


EQUIPMENT  67 

forces  his  head  to  one  side,  and  the  fatal 
habit  of  swaying  is  encouraged.  The 
bottom  of  your  neck  has  to  screw  with  the 
body  while  the  head  remains  still,  and  a 
high  collar  upsets  the  whole  scheme. 

I  have  nothing  to  say  on  the  burning 
question  of  trousers  versus  knickerbockers, 
except  that  the  latter  facilitate  that  free- 
dom of  the  ankle  and  leg  which  is  so 
desirable.  I  have  no  particular  pattern 
of  tie  to  suggest ;  in  fact,  I  am  finished 
with  the  subject  of  clubs  and  clothes.  I 
have  not  been  hypercritical  in  compiling 
this  chapter  of  hints.  I  have  learnt  from 
experience  that  each  of  the  points  herein- 
mentioned  may  be  worth  a  stroke  at  some 
time  or  other.  And  a  stroke  often  means 
the  difference  between  winning  a  hole 
and  only  halving  it. 


CHAPTER  IV 
TWO  ESSENTIALS  OF  SUCCESS 

EARLY  in  this  book  the  statement 
is  made  that,  under  present-day  con- 
ditions, it  is  comparatively  easy  to  enjoy 
a  fair  measure  of  success  on  the  links.  In 
the  abstract,  the  declaration  is  perhaps 
more  cheery  than  convincing.  I  do  not 
wish  it  to  be  taken  as  meaning  that  to 
reach  the  loftiest  heights  of  golfing  fame 
is  a  simple  matter.  To  become  a  first- 
class  golfer  still  requires  much  patient 
study.  During  recent  years,  however,  the 
game  has  become  the  outstanding  re- 
creation of  busy  men,  and  they  usually 
insist  that  they  do  not  want  to  waste  their 
precious  hours  of  leisure  in  taking  lessons 
and  practising  the  same  shot  time  after 
time.  They  want  to  get  out  on  to  the 
course,  and  have  a  match  with  somebody. 


TWO  ESSENTIALS  OF  SUCCESS       69 

It  is  not  too  much  to  say  that  a  new 
class  of  golfers  has  arisen  since  the  arrival 
of  the  rubber-cored  ball.  It  numbers 
thousands  of  people,  and  they  are  chiefly 
conspicuous  for  the  extreme  carelessness 
with  which  they  play  their  shots — care- 
lessness which  has  been  born,  I  suppose, 
of  the  knowledge  that  the  ball  is  often 
very  kind  to  the  bad  player.  Many  of 
them  declare  that  all  they  desire  is  exer- 
cise, and  that  they  do  not  mind  how  badly 
they  shape  as  golfers. 

They  generally  express  these  sentiments 
when  they  stand  about  six  down  with  five 
to  play,  and  the  match  is  over.  Probably 
there  are  very  few  golfers  devoid  of  am- 
bition to  make  headway  at  the  pastime, 
but  undoubtedly  there  are  many  who 
feel  that  it  would  be  a  frittering  away  of 
time  to  take  lessons,  when  they  might 
be  contesting  some  exciting  games.  The 
ease  with  which  the  ball  can  be  persuaded 
a  considerable  distance  has  generated  a 
spirit  of  heedlessness.  This  type  of  golfer 


70  HOW  TO  PLAY  GOLF 

is  very  unwise,  because  a  short  course  of 
tuition  at  the  outset  of  his  golfing  career 
might  have  been  the  means  of  giving  him 
victory  on  numerous  occasions  when 
defeat  has  been  his  portion.  On  almost 
every  course  one  sees  many  people  who 
are  clear  examples  of  early  neglect.  They 
hold  the  club  wrongly  ;  in  fact,  they  do 
nearly  everything  wrongly.  And  yet  they 
marvel  at  the  absence  of  appreciable  im- 
provement at  the  end  of  six  months  of 
golf. 

They  constitute  such  a  numerous  section 
of  the  community  that  I  may  here  bring 
out  a  few  points  which  should  be  of  assist- 
ance to  them  in  the  correction  of  their 
faults.  It  has  been  said  that  there  are 
ninety-nine  things  to  remember  while 
playing  a  stroke,  and  that  the  disregard 
of  any  one  of  them  is  sure  to  spoil  the 
effort.  To  the  golfer  who  is  in  the  throes 
of  a  long  novitiate,  and  who  is  at  a  loss 
to  understand  his  or  her  repeated  failure 
and  protracted  absence  of  progress,  I  say 


TWO  ESSENTIALS  OF  SUCCESS       71 

that  there  are  just  two  primary  and  all- 
important  points  to  remember.  They  are 
to  grip  the  club  properly  and  to  keep  the 
head  steady.  Master  those  two  diffi- 
culties, and  you  are  certain  to  advance  in 
some  degree.  Most  of  the  bad  golf  that 
is  played  is  attributable  to  either  a  wrong 
method  of  holding  the  club  or  the  moving 
of  the  head.  There  are  other  things  to 
be  learnt  later,  but  to  succeed  in  these 
two  essentials  is  to  place  oneself  well  on 
the  road  to  progress.  To  ignore  them  is 
to  render  progress  practically  impossible. 
Of  the  two,  perhaps  the  more  important 
is  the  preservation,  until  the  ball  has  been 
struck,  of  steadiness  of  the  head.  Directly 
that  necessary  nuisance  starts  to  move 
with  the  club  during  the  upward  swing, 
the  body  begins  to  sway  and  is  thrown 
out  of  gear  and  off  its  balance.  The  result 
is  almost  inevitably  a  bad  shot.  Amongst 
first-class  players  there  are  a  few  excep- 
tions to  the  rule,  and  I  sometimes  think 
that  they  know  more  about  the  game  than 


72  HOW  TO  PLAY  GOLF 

anybody  else.  They  know  so  much  about 
it  that  they  are  able  to  fly  in  the  face  of 
several  established  principles  of  the  correct 
golfing  style,  and  yet  perform  satisfactorily 
on  the  links.  They  are  a  law  unto  them- 
selves. 

For  the  old  axiom,  "  Keep  your  eye  on 
the  ball/'  I  would  substitute,  "  Keep  your 
head  still/'  because,  by  performing  the 
latter  act  of  restrainment,  you  give  the 
eye  little  chance  to  wander,  which  it 
certainly  should  not  do,  and  you  obtain 
the  additional  advantage  of  rendering 
comparatively  easy  the  proper  turn  of 
the  body.  Directly  you  move  the  head, 
everything  starts  to  go  wrong.  The  body 
begins  to  sway  and  to  prepare  for  a  kind 
of  lunge  at  the  ball ;  and  lunging,  in  the 
generally  accepted  sense  of  the  word,  is 
generally  useless  in  golf.  The  action,  to 
produce  consistent  success,  must  be  that  of 
swinging,  with  a  certain  element  of  hitting 
introduced  in  order  to  make  for  power. 

This    may    be    an    elementary    truth, 


TWO  ESSENTIALS  OF  SUCCESS       73 

known  to  and  appreciated  by  many 
thousands  of  players  ;  but  I  cannot  help 
thinking  that  there  are  thousands  of 
others  who  either  have  not  heard  it  or  do 
not  realize  its  importance.  It  is  astonish- 
ing how  many  people  fall  into  an  incorrect 
style,  and  render  practically  impossible 
the  execution  of  a  good  shot  ere  they  have 
taken  the  club-head  a  yard  from  the  ball. 
The  player's  head  moves  in  the  same 
direction  as  the  club,  the  body  goes  with 
it,  as  it  would  have  to  do  unless  the  per- 
former possessed  a  neck  of  india-rubber ; 
and  then  all  is  over  bar  the  imprecation 
or  subdued  disappointment. 

Undoubtedly,  however,  there  are  very 
many  golfers  who  know  the  value  of  the 
rule,  and  who  think  they  are  keeping 
their  heads  still  when  all  the  while  they 
are  doing  nothing  of  the  kind.  Indeed, 
these  constitute  the  majority.  Often, 
during  a  course  of  instruction,  the  pro- 
fessional remarks  at  the  end  of  a  stroke, 
"  You  mustn't  move  your  head/'  only 


74  HOW  TO  PLAY  GOLF 

to  receive  the  almost  indignant  reply, 
"  Well,  I'm  sure  I  didn't  move  it  that 
time."  The  pupil  is  convinced  that  he 
has  fulfilled  the  requirement  to  the  last 
letter,  and  it  is  sometimes  very  difficult 
to  convince  him  that  he  has  not  done  so. 
His  belief  is  whole-hearted.  All  the  same, 
the  intelligent  instructor  knows  exactly 
what  is  wrong,  and  he  can  only  possess 
his  soul  in  patience  as  he  says,  "  Now  try 
again ;  and  be  sure  you  keep  your  head 
still."  Enthusiasts  have  adopted  truly 
noble  and  desperate  measures  in  order  to 
master  this  necessity.  There  was  once  a 
man  who  tied  his  head  to  a  tree  as  a  means 
of  teaching  it  a  lesson.  Whenever  it  re- 
ceived a  jerk — and  some  of  the  jerks  must 
have  been  almost  sufficient  to  dislocate 
his  neck — he  knew  that  he  had  committed 
the  old  error.  There  was  another  player 
who  thought  of  a  highly  ingenious  device. 
I  understand  that  to  a  button  on  his  waist- 
coat he  affixed  a  piece  of  elastic — not 
securely,  but  with  just  sufficient  firmness 


TWO  ESSENTIALS  OF  SUCCESS       75 

that  a  real  tug  at  it  would  pull  it  off  the 
button.  The  other  end  he  held  tightly 
in  his  teeth  so  that  the  elastic  was  moder- 
ately taut  without  being  severely  stretched. 
Then  he  set  his  teeth  with  great  good  pur- 
pose and  made  his  swing.  His  theory  was 
that  if  the  elastic  jumped  off  the  button 
and  smacked  him  in  the  face,  he  would 
know  that  he  had  moved  his  head.  Un- 
fortunately he  had  forgotten  that  his  body 
would  move  with  his  head. 

There  was  another  player  who,  in  order 
to  overcome  his  inclination  to  spread 
his  arms  too  far  apart,  introduced  a 
thick  india-rubber  band,  which  he  fixed 
from  elbow  to  elbow.  Those  troublesome 
members  were  thereby  prevented  from 
going  wrong  in  the  outward  direction. 
The  only  danger  to  which  they  were  sub- 
mitted was  that  of  getting  too  close  to- 
gether. The  arms,  however,  constitute  a 
secondary  consideration  ;  we  are  talking 
now  of  the  head,  the  steadiness  of  which 
is  the  first  desideratum.  I  do  not  suppose 


76  HOW  TO  PLAY  GOLF 

that  many  players  would  feel  inclined  to 
tether  themselves  to  trees  in  order  to 
correct  their  faults.  But  I  have  seen  a 
little  device,  as  simple  as  it  is  clever, 
which  is  certainly  the  most  masterly 
means  ever  conceived  of  drilling  a  golfer 
in  the  matter  of  head-restraint.  It  is  so 
very  simple  that  I  cannot  help  wondering 
why  nobody  thought  of  it  years  ago.  It 
does  not  cause  the  smallest  inconvenience. 
It  cannot  even  be  seen  by  the  player  as 
he  swings,  and  yet  it  tells  him  instantly 
whether  he  has  moved  his  head  or  accom- 
plished the  all-important  task  of  keeping 
it  still. 

At  first,  the  golfer  may  be  inclined  to 
smile  when  I  describe  to  him  this  con- 
trivance. I  can  only  assure  him  that  I 
have  tried  it  for  the  benefit  of  several 
players,  and  that  the  results  have  always 
been  excellent.  I  do  not  claim  any  credit 
for  the  idea.  It  was  conceived  by  Colonel 
Quill,  who  took  up  golf  at  the  age  of  fifty- 
six,  and,  with  the  help  of  his  corrector, 


TWO  ESSENTIALS  OF  SUCCESS       77 

made  himself  a  scratch  player  in  eighteen 
months.  I  find  that  with  most  people 
who  start  golf  fairly  late  in  life  (at  any 
rate  after  the  age  of  forty)  the  commonest 
difficulty  is  that  of  keeping  the  head  steady. 
Especially  is  this  the  case  amongst  persons 
who  have  not  kept  in  more  or  less  athletic 
condition  by  pursuing  cricket  or  some 
other  pastime.  Their  bodies  become  set, 
and  they  find  it  a  very  trying  matter  to 
turn  at  the  waist,  more  particularly  if 
they  happen  to  have  a  lot  of  waist  to  turn. 
All  the  same,  they  must  learn  to  do  so  if 
they  would  acquire  any  proficiency  at  all ;  it 
is  the  only  way  to  secure  success  at  golf. 
If  they  do  not  turn,  they  generally  move 
the  body  and  head  away  from  the  ball 
since  they  must  make  some  backward 
movement  in  preparation  for  the  onslaught. 
That  is  where  they  go  wrong.  It  is  the 
fault  which  they  must  never  give  up  trying 
to  cure. 

Let  me  describe  the  device  of  Colonel 
Quill.     Let  me  explain,  too,  the  way  in 


78  HOW  TO  PLAY  GOLF 

which  he  made  it.  He  obtained  a  hollow 
brass  post,  about  three  feet  long.  Truth 
to  tell,  it  was  a  bedpost.  One  end  he 
fashioned  to  a  point,  so  that  it  could  be 
stuck  into  the  ground.  Down  the  post, 
from  within  about  a  foot  of  the  top  to 
within  a  few  inches  of  the  bottom,  he  made 
a  narrow  incision  in  the  metal — a  gap 
about  a  quarter  of  an  inch  wide.  Some 
strong  thread,  a  small  piece  of  tin,  and  a 
fish-hook  completed  the  articles  of  manu- 
facture. The  thread  was  slipped  through 
the  post,  and  to  the  end  of  it  was  affixed  the 
piece  of  tin  so  that  the  latter  rested  outside 
the  upright.  The  other  end  of  the  thread 
was  sufficiently  long  to  reach  to  the  cap 
of  the  player  as  he  stood  in  proper  position 
for  a  shot.  It  was  fixed  to  the  cap  by  the 
fish-hook. 

All  this  may  seem  somewhat  weird,  but 
as  to  the  value  of  the  instrument  I  have 
not  the  slightest  doubt.  It  is  an  extra- 
ordinarily effective  means  of  practice  for 
the  indifferent  golfer — or  even  the  good 


TWO  ESSENTIALS  OF  SUCCESS       79 

one  who  finds  that  he  is  doing  badly  and 
knows  not  quite  why.  Lessons  and  hints 
from  a  human  instructor  are  none  the  less 
desirable,  but  this  contrivance  enables  the 
player  to  decide,  when  shots  do  not  come 
off  in  practice  as  they  ought  to  do,  whether 
or  not  he  is  moving  his  head,  which  is  the 
fault  productive  of  most  bad  strokes. 

Let  us  assume  that  the  aspirant  is  at 
work  with  one  of  these  posts.  He  takes 
up  his  stance,  the  thread  being  stretched, 
with  perhaps  an  inch  of  slackness  per- 
mitted, from  his  cap  to  the  piece  of  tin  at 
the  bottom  of  the  upright.  He  cannot 
see  any  part  of  his  training-machine 
because  his  eyes  are  fixed  on  the 
ball.  He  swings.  What  happens  ?  If 
he  moves  his  head  the  metal  indicator 
begins  to  run  up  the  post,  tinkling  merrily 
the  while.  It  affords  irrefutable  evidence 
against  him.  In  effect,  it  shouts  to  him 
the  instant  he  starts  to  make  the  old  mis- 
take :  "  Hi !  you're  shifting  your  head/' 
and  it  is  not  the  smallest  use  for  him  to  pro- 


80  HOW  TO  PLAY  GOLF 

test  that  he  is  doing  nothing  of  the  kind. 
He  stands  convicted  by  the  tinkle,  and 
when  he  hears  it,  there  is  little  object  in 
his  continuing  the  stroke,  for,  with  his 
head  moving,  there  is  but  a  poor  chance 
of  the  shot  being  a  good  one.  He  must 
settle  down  to  the  task  of  working  out 
his  salvation  by  practising  and  practising 
until  he  can  make  full  swings  without 
stirring  the  indicator.  When  he  can  do 
that,  he  has  mastered  the  greatest  diffi- 
culty that  golf  presents  to  the  average 
beginner.  There  are,  of  course,  other 
things  that  he  may  do  wrongly,  but  they 
are  generally  capable  of  easier  remedy 
than  this  first  and  most  frequent  fault. 
The  chances  are  that  he  has  now 
acquired  the  way  of  turning  properly 
from  the  waist  and  thus  distributing  his 
weight  properly.  I  have  submitted 
Colonel  Quill's  simple  contrivance  to 
many  tests.  I  have  tried  full  swings  and 
followed  through  to  the  fullest  extent. 
When  I  have  been  playing  well,  there 


TWO  ESSENTIALS  OF  SUCCESS       81 

has  been  no  suspicion  of  a  tug  at  the 
thread  and  consequently  no  warning  note 
from  the  indicator.  In  all  sincerity,  I 
say  that  it  is  the  best  form  of  prepara- 
tion that  I  know  for  an  indifferent  player 
who  suffers  from  the  common  failing,  and 
who  wants  to  improve.  If  he  cannot  go 
to  the  links  more  than  twice  a  week,  he 
can  practise  swings  in  his  garden,  or  even 
in  the  house  if  his  ingenuity  be  such  as 
to  enable  him  to  induce  the  contrivance 
to  stand  on  the  floor.  In  these  limited 
areas,  he  cannot  be  sure — unless  he  use 
a  captive  ball — whether  he  is  topping  or 
even  missing  the  globe  altogether,  but  if 
his  efforts  leave  the  metal  undisturbed, 
he  can  rest  assured  that  he  is  getting  into 
the  way  of  the  true  golfing  swing. 

I   have  given  foremost  position  to  this 
matter  of  keeping  the  head  still,  because  the. 
neglect  of  it  is  the  cause  of  so  much  bad  golf, 
but,  as  mentioned  earlier  in  this  chapter,  it 
is  absolutely  necessary  that  the  club  should 

be  gripped  in  the  proper  way.     In  a  sense, 
6 


82  HOW  TO  PLAY  GOLF 

there  are  two  proper  ways.  There  is 
the  old-fashioned  grip,  in  which  the  hands 
meet  on  the  shaft  of  the  club  but  do  not 
overlap,  and  there  is  the  overlapping  grip, 
which,  personally,  I  think  is  by  far  the  better 
and  which  is  now  adopted  by  nearly  every 
professional  of  note.  These,  however,  are 
both  two  V  grips,  in  the  sense  that  the 
thumb  and  forefinger  form  V's  down  the 
shaft  of  the  club. 

So  that  here  we  come  to  the  first  im- 
portant point  concerning  the  grip.     It  is 
that,  whether  the  hands  overlap  or  not,  the 
thumbs  and  forefingers  must  be  placed  so 
as    to    shape    into    V's.     Sometimes    you 
see  players  holding  a  club  as  they  might 
seize  a  rope  for  a  tug-of-war.     They  place 
the  implement  deeply  in  the  palms,  and 
the  knuckles  are  almost  hidden  from  view 
beneath  the  shaft.     That  style  is  bound  to 
be  fatal,  because,  in  order  to  take  the  club 
right  back,  it  becomes  necessary  to  loosen 
the  grip  with  all  the  fingers.     And  such 
loosening  must  inevitably  weaken  the  shot. 


til 

III 
111 


ill 

III 
ill 


« 

III 


til 


TWO  ESSENTIALS  OF  SUCCESS       83 

If,  then,  you  decide  to  employ  the  old- 
fashioned  grip,  it  is  necessary  to  have  the 
two  V's  in  evidence,  and  it  is  even  more 
important  to  remember  to  keep  the  hands 
wedged  well  together.  If  you  separate 
them  only  a  little,  it  is  the  same  as 
having  a  club  in  each  hand,  the  one 
trying  to  do  something  different  from 
the  other. 

This  latter  statement  is  an  established 
fact,  and  it  is  the  desirability  of  having 
the  hands  contiguous  which  constitutes  the 
great  recommendation  of  the  overlapping 
grip.  For,  with  that  method  of  holding 
the  club,  the  two  hands  become  practically 
one.  They  are  wedded,  and  if  the  cere- 
mony of  wedding  them  be  properly  per- 
formed and  a  little  forbearance  be  shown 
at  the  outset,  when  minor  discomforts  may 
be  experienced,  I  can  promise  that  they  will 
live  very  happily  together  ever  after.  The 
illustrations  will  perhaps  convey  the  idea 
of  this  grip  better  than  I  can  explain  it. 
The  simplest  way  to  obtain  it  is  to  take  the 


84  HOW  TO  PLAY  GOLF 

club  in  the  left  hand,  the  shaft  pressing  into 
the  top  (or  little)  joint  of  the  forefinger.     As 
the  wrist  should  be  turned  so  as  to  show  the 
knuckles,  the  thumb  will  be  urged  past  the 
shaft.     Bring  it  back,  and  place  it  down  the 
shaft.     We  now  have  the  left  thumb  firmly 
on  the  club,  and  the  top  joint  of  the  left 
forefinger  exercising  a  determined  hold.     It 
is  with  these  two  members  that  we  want  to 
grip  tightest ;    that  is  why  we  are  making 
use  of  the  strongest  part  of  the  left  fore- 
finger.    In  the  ordinary  way,  it  is  the  finger 
with  which  we  find  we  apply  least  pressure 
when  we  take  hold  of  anything.     It  seems 
to  be  a  law  of  Nature  that  the  littler  fingers 
shall  be  able  to  grip  the  more  securely.     Try 
them,  for  instance,  when  seizing  a  stick. 
In  golf  we  want  them  to  act  chiefly  as 
guides ;    their  superior  strength  must  be 
suppressed.     Consequently,  let  the  second, 
third   and  little  fingers   fall    into  natural 
position  after  a  firm  grip  has  been  taken 
with  the  left  thumb  supported  by  the  fore- 
finger.    In  the  case  of  the  right  hand,  the 


TWO  ESSENTIALS  OF  SUCCESS       85 

ball  of  the  thumb — that  rounded  pro- 
tuberance of  admirable  proportions — is 
utilized  to  place  over  the  left  thumb,  the  top 
of  which  alone  remains  exposed  to  view. 
The  first  three  fingers  of  the  right  hand 
clasp  the  shaft,  and  the  little  finger  presses 
firmly  on  the  forefinger  of  the  left  hand. 
Then  the  union  is  complete.  I  have  heard 
people  say  that  this  grip  is  peculiarly  suited 
to  me  because  I  am  endowed  with  unusually 
long  fingers.  Personally,  I  think  that 
fingers  of  more  than  the  normal  length  are 
a  handicap  rather  than  a  help,  because  one 
has  to  find  room  for  them.  Anybody  can 
adopt  this  style  of  holding  the  club,  and 
I  think  that  everybody  will  agree  that — 
theoretically  at  any  rate — it  is  correct.  It 
forms  a  perfect  confederacy  of  the  hands. 
I  hesitate  to  say  that  there  is  a  master  hand 
in  golf.  A  lot  of  people  plump  for  the  left. 
But  the  right  hand  should  grip  firmly ;  in 
fact  there  should  be  as  little  difference  as 
possible.  There  is  no  need  to  press  so  hard 
as  to  make  the  blood  run  out  of  the  hands, 


86  HOW  TO  PLAY  GOLF 

but  in  no  circumstances  should  you  permit 
any  degree  of  slackness. 

It  took  me  a  year  of  constant  experi- 
mentation to  satisfy  myself  as  to  the 
superiority  of  this  grip  over  all  others.  I 
tried  every  conceivable  means  of  holding 
the  club,  and  the  one  which  I  have  described 
proved  itself  to  be  indisputably  the  best. 
It  did  not  come  naturally  to  me,  but  it  was 
well  worth  the  trouble  of  acquiring.  It 
seems  to  create  just  the  right  fusion  between 
the  hands,  and  involuntarily  induces  each 
to  do  its  proper  work. 

For  the  beginner,  there  is  no  preparation 
so  good  as  that  of  practising  for  a  month 
or  two  without  playing  so  much  as  a  single 
complete  round.  If,  after  deciding  to  take 
up  the  game  and  getting  the  taste  for  blood 
which  comes  of  the  first  few  attempts  to  hit 
the  ball — if,  at  this  stage,  he  be  capable  of 
such  splendid  self-restraint  as  to  spend  all 
his  time  on  the  links  during  the  ensuing  six 
weeks  in  taking  lessons  from  one  qualified 
to  teach  and  in  practising  what  he  has  learnt, 


TWO  ESSENTIALS  OF  SUCCESS       87 

his  progress  will  be  rapid — far  more  so 
than  that  of  the  person  who  takes  every 
opportunity  to  engage  in  a  match.  It  is,  I 
know,  a  counsel  of  perfection,  but  men  have 
followed  it,  and,  in  an  extraordinarily  short 
time,  have  reached  a  fair  measure  of  pro- 
ficiency with  the  clubs  which  are  called  upon 
to  do  most  of  the  work.  Let  the  neophyte 
tackle  them  one  by  one  without  attempt- 
ing fancy  or  complicated  shots.  All  that 
he  needs  to  do  at  the  outset  is  to  learn  the 
proper  grip,  the  way  to  keep  the  head 
steady,  and  the  correct  swing.  The  rest 
will  come  later,  and  the  quality  of  it  will 
depend  largely  on  his  inborn  talent  for  the 
game  and  his  opportunities  for  developing 
it.  But  he  can  usually  learn  to  play  toler- 
ably well  in  a  short  time  by  the  exercise 
of  self-denial  while  he  is  studying  the 
fundamental  principles  of  the  pastime.  If 
he  be  incapable  of  such  heroics,  those 
principles  will  naturally  take  much  longer 
in  finding  a  place  in  his  system.  A  person 
who  starts  wrongly  and  plays  in  the  wrong 


88  HOW  TO  PLAY  GOLF 

manner  for  several  months  may  prove  to 
be  a  golfer  lost.  Salvation  is  a  protracted 
and  painful  process  when,  in  golf,  a  man 
has  been  following  for  some  months  a 
false  trail. 


CHAPTER  V 
HOW  TO  DRIVE 

THE  easiest  strokes  in  golf  are,  I  think, 
shots  from  the  tee  with  a  brassie  and 
from  the  fairway  with  an  iron.  Therefore 
I  would  suggest  to  the  beginner,  or  to  the 
person  who  is  almost  resigned  to  mediocrity, 
that  he  should  settle  down  at  once  to  the 
task  of  mastering  those  shots.  They  are 
not  difficult ;  but  they  are  impossible  unless 
the  player  knows  how  to  swing  the  club 
properly.  The  golf  swing  is  different  from 
anything  else  in  sport.  It  deserves  to  be 
called  an  art.  There  is  only  one  way  of 
executing  it  correctly.  At  least,  that  is  true 
of  its  fundamental  features.  From  time  to 
time  one  hears  and  reads  of  various  kinds 
of  swings.  Years  ago,  for  instance,  the  talk 
was  all  of  the  St  Andrews  swing.  That 
swing  consists  of  sweeping  the  club  round 


90  HOW  TO  PLAY  GOLF 

the  legs  until  the  arms  will  allow  it  to  go  no 
farther  without  moving  the  body,  and  then 
bringing  the  implement  back  in  order  to  be 
able  to  raise  it  comfortably.  To  all  intents 
and  purposes,  it  is  a  matter  of  going  out 
of  the  way  and  having  to  return  to  the 
right  track.  When  the  upward  swing  is 
three-quarters  completed,  the  adept  at  the 
St  Andrews  method  is  on  the  same  track 
as  any  other  proficient  golfer  at  the  cor- 
responding stage  of  the  ordinary  swing. 
The  latter  has  simply  gone  straight  to  the 
point,  while  the  devotee  of  the  St  Andrews 
style  has  taken  a  round-about  route. 
Sometimes  one  hears  of  a  good  player 
having  a  "flat  swing. "  I  venture  to  say 
that  if  the  swing  is  correct,  it  cannot  be 
"  flat."  Again,  the  expression  means  that 
the  player  starts  on  a  track  which  he 
must  abandon.  A  person  who  never  soars 
above  a  half-swing  may  certainly  make  it 
a  "  flat "  one,  but  he  will  not  often  be  a 
good  golfer. 

I  do  not  suggest  that  the  afore-mentioned 


HOW  TO  DRIVE  91 

variations  in  the  early  part  of  the  full  swing 
are  necessarily  fatal.  What  I  do  say  is  that 
they  are  useless,  and  that,  from  three- 
quarters  to  the  top,  and  thence  to  the 
moment  of  impact,  there  is  only  one  proper 
course  for  the  club-head  to  follow,  and  that 
all  accomplished  players  follow  it.  It 
requires  a  genius  to  start  on  the  wrong 
track  and  get  on  to  the  right  one. 

There  are  people  who  declare  that  the 
perfect  way  to  learn  golf  is  to  learn  it  back- 
wards. That  is  to  say,  they  advocate  a 
scheme  whereby  the  beginner  practises 
putting  for  a  start,  and  works  his  way  by  a 
kind  of  inverted  curriculum — the  mashie, 
then  the  iron,  then  the  cleek — until  he 
studies  the  full  swing  with  wooden  clubs. 
At  first  blush,  the  idea  may  seem  to  have 
something  to  recommend  it.  For  one  thing, 
it  is  novel,  and  a  novelty  generally  possesses 
a  degree  of  charm.  What,  however,  con- 
tributes most  to  the  plausibility  of  this 
plan  is  the  fact  that  the  player  is  taught  to 
hit  the  ball  farther  and  farther  and  make 


92  HOW  TO  PLAY  GOLF 

his  swing  longer  and  longer.  There  is  an 
appearance  of  logicality  about  the  notion 
of  beginning  in  a  small  way  and  gradually 
rising  to  the  glory  of  long  hitting. 

A  little  reflection,  however,  will  show 
that  such  reasoning  is  a  delusion  where  the 
study  of  golf  is  concerned.  If  the  short 
shots  were  easier  than  the  long  ones,  it 
would  be  all  right,  but  it  so  happens  that 
approaching  is  about  the  most  difficult 
part  of  the  game.  As  for  learning  to 
putt  first,  I  should  imagine  that  anybody 
would  become  heartily  sick  of  the  business 
before  he  had  half  completed  it.  I  do  not 
know  when  a  person  can  be  said  to  have 
learnt  putting.  There  are  certain  points 
well  worth  studying  in  connexion  with  it, 
but  there  is  no  infallible  prescription  for 
making  the  ball  go  into  the  hole  every  time 
— or  even  every  other  time.  I  wish  I  could 
discover  one.  In  connexion  with  the  full 
swing,  there  are  golden  rules  which  can  be 
learnt,  and  the  practice  of  which  will 
produce  success.  And  it  is  best,  I  think, 


HOW  TO  DRIVE  93 

to  begin  with  shots  for  the  practice  of  which 
there  exist  plenty  of  data. 

Therefore,  let  the  neophyte,  or  the  player 
who  fears  that  he  is  an  incurably  bad  golfer, 
resolve  to  master  first  of  all  the  way  of 
executing  a  shot  off  the  tee  with  his 
brassie.  This  is  the  easiest  full  shot  in  the 
realm  of  golf,  and  the  accomplishment  of 
it  always  affords  a  thrill  of  pleasure  and 
encouragement.  Moreover,  once  he  has 
made  himself  proficient  at  it,  the  knowledge 
thus  acquired  will  be  a  considerable  help 
to  him  in  playing  the  more  difficult  strokes. 
I  suggest  a  brassie  rather  than  a  driver, 
because  the  former,  having  a  slight  loft  on 
it,  generates  the  greater  amount  of  con- 
fidence. Moreover,  as  it  is  the  less  whippy 
of  these  two  wooden  clubs,  it  is  the  simpler 
to  control.  The  methods  of  making  a  shot 
from  the  tee  and  a  shot  from  a  good  lie  on 
the  course  are — or  should  be — identical. 
The  skilled  golfer  often  employs  his  driver 
with  great  effect  when  the  ball  lies  on  the 
fairway,  although,  in  such  circumstances,  it 


94  HOW  TO  PLAY  GOLF 

is  perhaps  a  little  the  more  difficult  club  to 
wield  satisfactorily.  The  beginner  cannot 
do  better  than  seize  upon  the  easiest  stroke 
of  all,  which  is  the  brassie  shot  from  the 
tee.  Once  he  is  master  of  it,  he  will  find 
the  driver  joyous  to  use.  The  two  clubs 
being  of  the  same  length  (it  is  important 
to  see  that  they  do  not  vary  in  this  respect), 
the  driver  will  be  much  the  same  in  his 
hands  as  the  club  with  which  he  has  been 
practising.  The  troublesomeness  of  its 
straight  face,  which  at  the  outset  might 
have  been  considerable,  will  be  unrecognized 
now  that  he  feels  sure  of  hitting  the  ball, 
and,  what  is  equally  important,  he  will  have 
made  a  friend  of  the  brassie.  The  latter 
is  often  regarded  as  the  hardest  club  to  use 
on  the  fairway.  That  perhaps  is  only 
natural.  On  the  tee,  the  ball  sits  up 
temptingly,  entreating  a  strong  blow.  On 
the  turf,  it  seems  to  be  sitting  down,  and 
there  arises  the  necessity  of  picking  it  up 
cleanly,  and,  at  the  same  time,  hitting  it 
with  all  the  neatness  and  power  that  were 


HOW  TO  DRIVE  95 

inspired  by  the  sight  of  its   shining   face 
raised  clear  of  the  ground.     Therefore,  the 
player  is  in  every  respect  well  advised  in 
getting   on   good  terms  at  once  with  his 
brassie.     Let  him  have  a  low  tee  (the  lower, 
within   reason,    the    better)    and,    in    due 
course,  the  driver  will  present  no  trouble 
to  him,  and  the  brassie,  when  he  takes  it  for 
a  shot  through  the  green,  will  be  an  old 
friend.     For,  as  I  have  already  said,  the 
methods  of   using  the  two  clubs  should, 
under  favourable  conditions,  be  exactly  the 
same.     When  the  lie  is  unfavourable  there 
are     certain     variations     which     can     be 
explained  later. 

For  the  moment  let  us  consider  the 
swing.  As  I  have  previously  remarked, 
little  can  go  wrong  if  the  grip  be  correct 
and  the  head  be  kept  still.  The  latter 
form  of  restraint  is,  for  the  ordinary  golfer, 
vital  to  the  success  of  the  stroke,  and  to 
the  learner  I  can  give  no  better  advice 
than  the  hint  to  drill  his  head  to  preserve 
a  state  of  rigidity  by  the  use  of  that  device 


96  HOW  TO  PLAY  GOLF 

conceived  by  Colonel  Quill.  Keeping  the 
eye  on  the  ball  is  important,  and  I  do  not 
suggest  that  anybody  should  forget  it. 
But  it  is  a  secondary  point.  Keeping  the 
head  still  is  the  prime  essential.  It  is  not 
much  use  having  the  vision  fixed  on  the 
ball  when  the  head  is  moving — except  in 
the  case  of  a  first-class  golfer  who,  when  he 
shifts  his  head,  knows  how  to  recover 
during  the  swing.  The  stance  must  be 
easy  and  comfortable  without  undue 
stooping  or  any  degree  of  stiffness.  Ease 
and  comfort  are  a  lot.  Just  stand  in  an 
unconstrained  way  and  address  the  ball  by 
placing  the  club-head  at  the  back  of  it, 
which  is  the  proper  part  of  the  ball  on  which 
to  fix  your  eye.  It  is  the  part  to  be  hit. 

I  will  not  advance  as  a  necessity  any  sys 
tern  of  measurement.  Of  late  years  I  have 
experimented  a  good  deal  with  my  own 
stance.  Marking  a  certain  spot  for  the  tee, 
I  have  carefully  noted  the  position  of  my 
feet  before  driving  the  ball.  Then  I  have 
walked  away,  returned  to  the  place  and 


HOW  TO  DRIVE  97 

driven  another  ball  from  the  same  tee.     I 
have  repeated  this  operation  four  or  five 
times,  marking  the  position  of  my  feet  on 
each  occasion,  and  in  no  two  cases  has  the 
stance    been    precisely    the    same.     There 
has  not  been  much  variation  ;    yet  every 
stance  has  been  different  from  every  other. 
So   I  will  not   ask   the   golfer  to  bother 
his  head  about  mathematical  calculations. 
Let  us  assume  that  he  is  standing  comfort- 
ably upon  the    teeing-ground,   addressing 
the  ball.     Let  him  remember  that,  except 
as  regards  the  arms,  the  space  which  he  now 
occupies  ought  to  constitute  the  limit  of  his 
sphere  of  movement  for  that  shot.      He 
must  act  in  the  area  which  he  has  allotted 
to  himself,  because  he  wants  to  make  not  a 
lunge  at  the  ball,  but  a  swing.     Even  the 
arms  return  to  that  area  and  finish  in  it.     If 
his  feet  reach  to  either  end  of  a  sheet  of 
newspaper,  his  body  ought  not  to  move 
outside  the  ground  covered  by  that  paper. 
The  golf  swing  is  produced  by  twisting 
the  body  round  from  the  waist  as  the  club 
7 


98  HOW  TO  PLAY  GOLF 

goes  up,  and  untwisting  it  as  the  club 
comes  down.  That  is  why  I  say  that, 
having  taken  up  your  stance,  you  must 
not  move  out  of  the  space  which  you 
occupy  as  you  address  the  ball.  It  is 
purely  a  matter  of  winding  yourself  up 
with  the  arms,  and  unwinding  yourself 
with  the  arms.  Or  perhaps  I  might 
have  said  with  the  club,  because  it  is 
important  to  remember  that  the  club- 
head  should  always  lead.  The  whole 
movement  is  a  turn  of  the  body  on  its 
own  axis.  Imagine  that,  at  the  waist 
and  neck,  you  have  rings  of  wheels  on 
which  your  body  will  twist  round  so  that 
the  club  and  the  arms  can  turn  it  without 
causing  the  head  to  move  or  the  nether 
limbs  to  shift  more  than  is  necessary  to 
preserve  a  balance.  Let  us  consider  the 
arms,  which,  with  the  club  leading  them, 
so  to  speak,  promote  this  process  of  wind- 
ing and  unwinding.  If  I  may  so  explain 
it,  each  half  of  the  golf  swing — the  upward 
and  the  downward — consists  of  two  dis- 


HOW  TO  DRIVE  99 

tinct   movements    which   fit    so    perfectly 
into  one  another  as  to  produce  a  rhythmic 
whole.     Most  of  my  readers  have  doubt- 
less   seen    that    mechanical    kind    of    doll 
which  raises  its  hand  automatically.     With 
the  first  jerk,  the  arm  goes  half-way  up  ; 
with  the  second,  it  touches  the  head  as 
though  saluting.     If  that  arm  worked  at 
the  side  instead  of  in  front,  it  would  afford 
a  fair  notion  of  the  action  for  the  golf 
swing.     It  would   give,  at   any  rate,   the 
germ  of  the  idea.     I  do  not  mean  to  sug- 
gest   that    the    golfer    should    behave    as 
though  he  had  to  wait  for  a  button  to  be 
pressed  before  he  could  lift  his  arm  beyond 
a  certain  point.     There  must  be  no  spas- 
modic   jerking.      But    the    fact    remains 
that  the  upward  swing  is  made  by  two 
movements,  one  dovetailing  so  nicely  into 
the  other  as  to  render  the  complete  opera- 
tion   smooth    and    continuous.     The    first 
movement  raises  the  club  until  its  head  is 
pointing  upwards,  the  right  hip  screwing 
round  the  while.     The  second  movement 


ioo  HOW  TO  PLAY  GOLF 

makes  the  elbows  bend  and  lets  the  shaft 
fall  into  position  behind  the  player's  head. 
As  the  shaft  thus  drops,  the  palms  of  the 
hands  open  a  little  and  the  grip  is  relaxed, 
save   for   that    exercised   by   the   thumbs 
and  forefingers,  which  are  the  grippers-in- 
chief.     To  demonstrate  the  latter  fact,  I 
have  often  held   a  club   solely  with  the 
thumbs  and  forefingers,  all  the  other  fingers 
being  off  the  shaft,  and  made  satisfactory 
shots.     Those  other  fingers,  however,  are 
very  useful   for   guiding   the   club   at   all 
parts  of  the  swing,  and  I  do  not  mean  to 
suggest  that  they  should  ever  be  off  the 
shaft.     They   should   simply   loosen   their 
hold  a  trifle  as  the  elbows  bend  ;  they  will 
regain  of  their  own  accord  a  firmer  grip 
as  the  club  comes  down.     At  the  top  of 
the  swing,  the  shaft  should  be  so  close  to 
the   player's   head,    without    touching   it, 
as  to  render  impossible  the  wearing  of  a 
hat  with  a  brim— or,  at   any  rate,  a  hard 
brim.     Sometimes  one  sees  ladies  golfing 
in  large  straw  hats.     They  simply  cannot 


HOW  TO  DRIVE  101 

be  swinging  properly,  or  they  would  knock 
their  hats  every  time. 

It  is  surprising  how  many  golfers  omit 
to  perform  the  second  movement  in  the 
swing.  They  raise  the  club  stiffly  and 
seem  to  consider  that  the  highest  point 
in  the  air  which  they  can  reach  must 
represent  the  top  of  the  swing,  and  that 
there  is  consequently  no  need  to  go  back 
any  farther.  This  half-swing  is  not  nearly 
so  great  a  handicap  with  the  rubber- 
cored  ball  as  it  was  with  the  gutty,  but 
it  is  an  incomplete  way  of  playing  golf. 
The  person  who  adopts  such  a  style  is, 
I  suppose,  impressed  with  the  necessity 
of  "  sweeping  "  the  ball  away  instead  of 
hitting  it.  He  has  been  enjoined  so  often 
to  "  sweep  "  it  off  the  tee  or  the  fairway 
that  he  thinks  he  cannot  do  better  than 
describe  a  sort  of  semicircle  with  the 
club-head.  The  idea  of  the  sweeping 
action  is  very  well,  but  the  golf  swing  is 
not  a  sweep  pure  and  simple.  It  is  partly 
a  hit.  And  the  natural  method  of  getting 


io3  HOW  TO  PLAY  GOLF 

into  position  for  hitting  with  a  stick  or 
any  other  instrument  is  to  have  it  behind 
your  head  so  that  you  can  lash  round 
strongly  with  it.  Well,  you  want  to  lash 
round  at  the  golf  ball,  but  it  is  essential 
to  exercise  restraint  as  the  club  begins 
to  come  down.  It  must  be  travelling  at 
its  fastest  pace  at  the  moment  of  im- 
pact. To  make  it  do  so  is  the  art  of 
the  swing.  It  is  the  knack  that  intro- 
duces the  sweeping  action  with  power  be- 
hind it. 

Up  to  the  present  I  have  not  attempted 
to  describe  seriatim  the  actions  which  pro- 
duce the  perfect  swing.  I  have  en- 
deavoured to  emphasize  a  fact  which  is 
unknown  to  or  unhonoured  by  thousands 
of  players,  to  their  frequent  discomfiture 
— namely,  that  the  operation  consists  of 
twisting  the  body  corkscrew-like  by  the 
aid  of  the  club  and  arms  ;  not  of  lurching 
away  from  the  ball,  and  then  making  a 
hefty  lunge  at  it.  That  point  having  been 
appreciated,  let  us  now  consider  the  opera- 


HOW  TO  DRIVE  103 

tion  in  detail.  The  stance  is  comfortable  ; 
the  toes  are  pointing  outwards  ;  the  ball 
is  distinctly  nearer  the  left  heel  than  the 
right,  and  the  right  foot  is  a  few  inches  in 
front  of  the  left — or,  at  any  rate,  not 
behind  it — so  as  to  facilitate  the  finish. 
Begin  by  taking  the  club-head  back  almost 
parallel  with  the  ground  for  a  few  inches. 
It  must,  however,  rise  a  little.  At  the 
same  time  start  to  turn  the  left  wrist 
inwards  towards  the  body  and  to  screw 
the  right  hip  round  towards  the  back. 
If  the  head  be  rigid,  the  top  of  the  left  leg 
has  to  turn  and  move  outwards  a  trifle 
in  response  to  the  pressure  from  the  right 
hip.  It  cannot  do  anything  else  since 
something  has  to  give  way.  As  a  natural 
result,  that  left  knee  bends.  The  right 
leg  should  be  almost  stiff.  There  is  the 
inauguration  of  the  winding-up  process, 
which  has  merely  to  be  continued  to  pro- 
duce the  desired  effect.  The  body  must 
be  screwed  up  as  far  as  it  will  go,  and  to 
prevent  it  from  trying  to  escape  the  ordeal 


io4  HOW  TO  PLAY  GOLF 

by  a  slackening  of  the  legs,  it  is  neces- 
sary to  see  that  the  left  heel,  although 
it  rises,  does  not  turn  out  of  position  to 
any  appreciable  extent.  The  pivoting  on 
the  left  foot  must  be  done  on  the  inside 
of  that  foot,  from  the  big  joint  to  the 
end  of  the  big  toe.  Here,  then,  we  have 
the  body  wound  up — the  left  wrist,  the 
right  hip,  the  top  of  the  left  leg,  and  so 
down  to  the  ankle,  all  screwing  in  sym- 
pathy and  producing  a  spiral-like  attitude. 
To  make  certain  of  none  of  the  effect  of 
this  twisting  slipping  away,  it  is  important 
to  remember  to  press  firmly  on  the  ball  of 
the  left  foot  and  not  to  shift  the  heel 
sideways.  The  strain  will  be  felt  a  little  ; 
it  should  be.  Having  wound  up  the  body 
as  tightly  as  possible  ("  trussed  like  a  fowl/' 
as  I  once  heard  the  position  described, 
although  even  a  prepared  fowl  is  not 
twisted  so  much),  no  part  of  the  mechan- 
ism must  be  allowed  to  slip.  As  it  was 
screwed  so  must  it  be  unscrewed. 

If  you  have  gone  up  properly,  you  ought 


-~ 

1 


•HHBi 


«  4111 


HOW  TO  DRIVE  105 

to  experience  little  difficulty  in  coming 
down  correctly.  I  do  not  say — as  some 
people  do — that  you  are  sure  to  come 
down  correctly,  because  you  may  make  the 
grievous  mistake  of  throwing  out  your 
arms.  There  is  one  admirable  means  of 
preventing  such  a  sure  producer  of  disaster. 
It  is  to  aim  at  an  imaginary  something  to 
the  right  of  the  player  and  about  a  foot 
behind  the  line  in  which  he  is  standing. 
In  teaching  the  game,  I  often  take  up  a 
position  such  as  that  indicated  for  the 
"  something "  and  say  to  the  pupil, 
r<  Now  try  to  hit  me  as  you  bring  the  club 
down.  I'll  see  that  you  don't,  but  try  to." 
The  idea  can  be  practised  by  placing  any 
object  at  a  point  towards  which  the  club 
should  go  at  the  beginning  of  the  down- 
ward swing.  The  only  road  to  a  straight 
shot  is  to  send  the  club  well  out  to  the 
right  and  a  little  behind  the  body  at  the 
beginning  of  the  downward  swing.  Then 
it  will  come  round  with  a  "  Swish,"  gather- 
ing pace  all  the  while,  and  the  ball  will  go 


io6  HOW  TO  PLAY  GOLF 

as  straight  as  an  arrow — well,  as  far  as  you 
can  send  it. 

Arnaud  Massy  has  a  curious  custom 
which  never  fails  to  put  his  club  on  the 
right  track  at  the  start  of  the  downward 
swing.  It  has  aroused  a  lot  of  comment 
from  time  to  time.  I  have  seen  it  de- 
scribed as  Massy's  "  pig-tail/'  Massy's 
"  twiddley-bit  "  and  whatnot,  and  a  great 
deal  of  wonderment  has  been  expressed  as 
to  why  the  Frenchman  does  it  and  the 
possible  effects  of  it.  What  happens  is, 
that,  at  the  top  of  the  swing,  Massy  makes 
a  strange  little  flourish,  a  circling  in  the 
air,  with  the  head  of  his  club.  Whereas 
most  men,  having  gone  up,  promptly 
start  to  come  down  again,  Massy  waits 
to  perform  this  "  twiddley-bit/'  It  would 
be  a  fine  thing  for  any  of  us  if  we  possessed 
the  same  habit.  By  giving  the  club-head 
that  little  turn  at  the  top,  he  pushes  it  out 
behind  him  so  that  it  is  almost  certain  to 
come  down  right.  It  is  practically  im- 
possible for  him  to  throw  his  arms  forward 


HOW  TO  DRIVE  107 

since  they  have  been  urged  into  the  proper 
track  by  that  flourish  which  makes  the 
club-head  circle  away  from  him.  For  the 
average  golfer,  however,  it  is  sufficient 
to  remember  to  aim  slightly  behind  at 
the  beginning  of  the  downward  swing. 
There  should  be  no  movement  at  all, 
except  of  the  arms,  until  the  club  is  half- 
way down.  It  must  be  first  recovered 
from  behind  the  head  while  the  loosened 
fingers  are  coming  back  on  to  the  shaft. 
Then,  when  it  is  well  out  to  the  right,  a 
point  or  two  behind  the  player,  and  just 
beginning  to  gain  impetus,  the  whole  body 
unwinds,  round  comes  the  club,  and  the 
stroke  is  a  fine  one.  A  good  swing  is  a 
certain  means  of  hitting  the  ball.  In 
order  to  convince  pupils  of  that  fact,  I 
have  often  closed  my  eyes  tightly  and 
driven  without  looking  at  the  ball  after 
having  taken  up  the  stance  and  made  the 
address.  The  proper  swing  cannot  fail. 

Yet  it  is  certain  that  the  majority  of 
golfers  sow  the  seeds  of  a  foozle  in  the  first 


io8  HOW  TO  PLAY  GOLF 

movement.  As  the  average  player  takes 
the  club  back,  he  moves  his  body  in  the 
same  direction  and  throws  all  the  weight  on 
to  his  right  leg.  At  once  everything  starts 
to  go  wrong.  It  is  a  natural  inclination, 
but  it  is  easy  to  overcome  if  you  determine 
that,  rather  than  go  the  same  way  as  the 
club,  you  will  go  the  opposite  way.  The 
proper  thing,  however,  is  not  to  disturb 
the  balance  at  all.  A  common  failing 
which  is  wrapped,  so  to  speak,  in  the  one 
just  described,  is  that  the  player  does  not 
fight  against  the  left  shoulder.  He  per- 
haps starts  the  upward  swing  well  enough, 
but  then  he  sees  the  left  shoulder  coming 
under  his  chin — which  is  just  where  it 
ought  to  be  at  the  top  of  the  swing.  But 
it  takes  him  by  surprise  and  seems  to 
alarm  him.  He  dodges  away  from  it, 
and  the  result  is  a  wrong  back  swing. 
Rather  let  him  move,  if  move  he  must,  in 
the  opposite  direction. 

I  have  said  nothing  about  the  follow- 
through   because  it   is   the  result   of  the 


*.&' 


• 


§  11*11 


I 


HOW  TO  DRIVE  109 

method  ;  it  is  not  the  method  itself.  If 
the  swing  has  been  properly  executed  the 
follow-through  will  be  all  right  with  the 
body  twisting  round  so  much  as  to  be 
facing  the  hole.  The  head  will  be  over 
the  right  shoulder,  leaning  towards  the  spot 
from  which  the  ball  has  been  dispatched. 
It  will  go  forward  with  the  body  a  few 
inches  as  a  result  of  the  momentum 
which  it  has  obtained  during  the  down- 
ward swing.  That  will  be  its  first  move- 
ment. If  the  head  be  erect  it  must  have 
been  moved  too  soon,  producing,  in  most 
cases,  a  top. 

"  Slow  back "  is  an  excellent  rule  for 
the  novice,  and  even  for  the  advanced 
golfer.  But  by  "  slow  back "  I  do  not 
mean  taking  the  implement  back  at  snail's 
pace.  Very  often  the  maxim  is  dinned 
into  the  ears  of  the  beginner  with  such 
assiduity  that  he  worries  himself  almost 
to  death  in  his  endeavours  to  make  the 
upward  swing  as  slow  as  possible.  That 
is  as  bad  as  too  rapid  a  movement.  There 


no  HOW  TO  PLAY  GOLF 

is  a  happy  medium.  As  proficiency  en- 
courages confidence,  the  back  swing  is 
apt  to  become  faster  and  faster,  but  there 
is  no  advantage  in  that  development, 
because  there  is  nothing  to  hit  at  the  top. 
Sometimes  one  sees  a  player  take  the 
club  up  at  lightning  pace,  with  the  result 
that  it  not  only  drops  behind  his  head, 
but  reaches  very  nearly  down  to  his  heels. 
Pursuing  that  plan,  the  golfer  can  depend 
upon  suffering  fairly  often  from  the  effects 
of  over  swinging.  He  has  to  loosen  his 
grip  entirely  and  hurl  himself  forward  to 
hit  the  ball. 

Now  we  have  seen  the  operation  as  it 
should  be — the  inward  turn  of  the  left 
wrist,  the  screwing  round  of  the  right  hip, 
the  pivoting  on  the  inside  of  the  left  foot, 
the  bend  of  the  elbows  that  causes  the 
grip  to  temporarily  relax  (save  for  the 
thumbs  and  forefingers)  and  the  shaft  to 
drop  behind  the  head,  the  aiming  at  an 
imaginary  object  to  the  right  about  a  foot 
behind  the  player,  and  then  the  natural 


HOW  TO  DRIVE  in 

sweep  round  of  the  club  which  strikes  the 
ball  smoothly,  yet  with  all  the  power  of 
a  hit,  and  finds  the  weight  equally  dis- 
tributed, as  it  was  during  the  address. 
If,  instead  of  winding  up  the  body,  you 
merely  move  it  to  one  side,  you  shift  the 
weight  so  far  away  that  you  cannot  often 
get  it  back  in  time  for  the  impact. 

When  the  ball  is  "  cupped/'  and  the 
player  still  desires  to  use  a  brassie  through 
the  green,  it  is  useless  to  endeavour  to 
nip  right  into  a  small  indentation  in  the 
ground  and  at  the  same  time  get  well 
under  the  ball.  The  disposition  to  attempt 
it  may  be  strong,  because  it  seems  that 
one  ought  to  make  sure  of  lifting  the  ball 
out  of  the  depression,  but  it  will  come  out 
all  right  if  the  player  aim  an  inch  or  two 
behind  the  object.  What  he  needs  to  do 
is  to  make  the  club  cut  through  the  edge 
of  the  cup — that  is  to  say,  through  the 
top  of  the  turf  which  forms  the  cup.  That 
will  enable  him  to  get  at  the  ball.  Conse- 
quently, whether  he  aims  one  inch  or  two 


ii2  HOW  TO  PLAY  GOLF 

inches  behind  the  ball  depends  upon  the 
extent  to  which  it  is  ensconced  in  the 
abominable  hollow.  With  the  rubber- 
core,  however,  there  is  seldom  real  neces- 
sity to  take  a  brassie  in  a  cuppy  lie.  An 
iron  club  will  usually  obtain  the  required 
distance.  That  is  one  more  phase  of  the 
simplifying  of  golf. 

These  are  seven  golden  rules  of  the  golf 
drive : — 

1.  Keep   the  head  steady   and   do   not 
let  the  left  heel  turn  outwards — then  the 
body  can  only  wind  up  when  the  arms 
go  back. 

2.  Grip   firmest   with   the   thumbs   and 
forefingers — they  are  not  so  well  adapted 
as   the    other    fingers   to   the   purpose   of 
taking  a  strong  hold,   and  they   are  the 
most  important  of  all  for  the  purpose  of 
the  golf  grip. 

3.  Let  the  club-head  lead,  the  left  wrist 
turning   inwards,   the   arms   following  the 
club-head,  and  the  right  hip  screwing  next. 

4.  Don't    throw    the    arms    forward    as 


HOW  TO  DRIVE  113 

you  start  to  come  down  as  though  you 
were  mowing  grass.  Rather  throw  them 
back,  and  let  them  come  round  in  their 
own  way  from  that  point. 

5.  Let     the     movement     of     the    right 
shoulder  be  steady  and  rhythmic  ;  it  should 
have  nothing  in  the  nature  of  a  sudden 
drop  or  jerk. 

6.  Don't  be  afraid  to  hit  hard  ;    if  you 
are  swinging  correctly,  hard  hitting  is  not 
"  pressing/' 

7.  Keep  your  head  still  until  the  club 
has  struck  the  ball. 


CHAPTER  VI 
CLEEK  AND  IRON  SHOTS 

WHEN  the  iron-headed  clubs  come 
up  for  discussion,  the  golfer's  first 
thoughts  turn  instinctively  to  the  cleek. 
It  is  not  an  easy  implement  with  which  to 
obtain  good  results,  but  once  the  player 
feels  confident  of  his  ability  to  use  it 
properly,  he  is  equipped  with  a  tool  which 
is  invaluable.  It  can  be  employed  with 
profit  for  many  kinds  of  strokes.  In  these 
days  of  the  rubber-cored  ball,  it  is  possible 
to  get  very  nearly  as  far  with  the  club  in 
question  as  with  a  driver  or  brassie,  so  that 
to  the  player  who  hesitates  to  attempt  a 
full  wooden-club  shot  when  the  lie  is 
indifferent,  the  cleek  presents  itself  in  the 
nature  of  a  providential  saver  of  the  situa- 
tion. Far  better,  too,  is  it  to  play  a  half 
shot  with  the  cleek  than  a  full  swipe  with 

114 


CLEEK  AND  IRON  SHOTS        115 

the  iron.  Here,  then,  we  have  an  agent 
capable  of  doing  much  good.  Now  as  to 
the  best  way  to  become  on  friendly  terms 
with  it.  The  best  way  is,  I  think,  to  obtain 
an  introduction  to  it  through  the  medium 
of  the  iron. 

Let  us  assume  that  the  aspirant  to  success 
is  master  of  the  swing.  That  is  essential. 
He  is  making  drives  and  brassie  shots  of 
eminently  respectable  extent  and  direction. 
On  the  hard  ground,  he  may  be  even 
merging  himself  in  the  general  conspiracy 
to  spoil  the  courses  by  driving  unreasonably 
far.  He  is  swinging  properly ;  therefore 
he  can  turn  with  self-reliance  to  the  task  of 
learning  the  peculiarities  of  the  cleek  and 
iron.  Those  peculiarities  are  few. 

I  said  earlier  in  this  book  that  the  easiest 
shots  in  golf  were  those  made  from  the  tee 
with  a  brassie  and  from  the  fairway  with  an 
ordinary  iron.  The  latter  club  is  a  general 
favourite.  Its  loft  is  not  stinted  like  that 
of  the  cleek,  nor  accentuated  like  that  of  the 
mashie.  It  is  a  rational,  attractive  sort  of 


n6  HOW  TO  PLAY  GOLF 

loft ;  just  the  kind  required  to  pick  a  ball 
up  cleanly  from  the  turf  and  send  it  hurling 
through  space.  Without  a  doubt,  the  iron, 
in  addition  to  being  a  useful  implement, 
enjoys  immense  popularity,  and  is  quick  to 
win  the  confidence  of  its  owner.  It  might 
almost  be  described  as  the  pet  of  the  bag. 
Nor  is  it  often  a  spoilt  child.  One  seldom 
hears  a  golfer  complaining  that  this 
particular  club  is  not  what  it  ought  to  be. 
From  time  to  time  he  may  fancy  another 
iron,  and  buy  it,  but  only  because  he  is 
devoted  to  irons  just  as  some  people  have 
a  passion  for  foreign  stamps.  It  is  not 
because  he  feels  that  his  first  friend  has 
played  him  false. 

This  widespread  sentiment  is  alone  a 
sufficiently  good  reason  for  recommending 
an  early  course  of  study  with  the  iron  to  the 
beginner  or  the  person  who  is  endeavouring 
to  rise  superior  to  long-standing  mediocrity. 
He  can  intersperse  such  practice  with  that 
which  he  is  obtaining  with  the  wooden  clubs. 
Just  as  he  will  be  able  to  use  the  driver  if 


CLEEK  AND  IRON  SHOTS        117 

he  become  competent  with  the  brassie  on 
the  teeing  ground,  so  will  he  be  able  to  do 
good  work  with  the  cleek  if  he  can  make 
satisfactory  shots  with  his  iron.  In  each 
case,  it  is  a  matter  of  beginning  with  the 
easier  article  and  so  lessening  the  difficulties 
of  the  harder  one.  The  manner  of  swing- 
ing by  turning  from  the  waist  and  pivoting 
on  the  left  big  toe  without  turning  the  heel 
outwards  is — or  should  be — precisely  the 
same  for  all  four  of  the  clubs.  By  all  means 
grip  a  little  tighter  with  the  cleek  or  iron 
than  with  the  driver  or  brassie,  but  the  chief 
differences  in  the  methods  of  executing  iron- 
and  wooden-club  shots  are  matters  of  stance 
and  length  of  back  swing.  The  slightly 
strengthened  hold  is  desirable  lest  the 
implement  turn  in  the  hands  at  the  moment 
of  impact,  a  disaster  which  is  apt  to  occur 
through  the  contact  with  the  ground  ;  but 
I  cannot  support  the  advice  which  I  have 
seen  given  in  some  treatises  that  the  grip 
with  iron  implements  should  be  so  tight  as 
to  make  the  blood  run  out  of  the  knuckles. 


n8  HOW  TO  PLAY  GOLF 

The  person  who  clutches  the  handle  with 
that  degree  of  grim  desperation  is  likely  to 
get  himself  into  a  state  of  uncomfortable 
tautness.  Just  grip  with  such  firmness, 
more  especially  with  the  thumbs  and  fore- 
fingers, as  to  prevent  the  club  from  twist- 
ing in  the  hands.  If  you  remember  the 
thumbs  and  forefingers,  the  other  fingers 
will  generally  supply  of  their  own  accord 
the  desired  amount  of  pressure.  Or,  at 
least,  they  will  very  soon  come  to  know 
what  is  required  of  them. 

Whatever  shot  the  player  may  be 
practising,  he  should  adopt  the  simple 
means  which  I  have  already  mentioned  of 
training  his  head  to  keep  still ;  for  the 
head  that  does  not  move  during  the  swing 
belongs  to  the  man  who  is  going  to  succeed 
on  the  links.  I  may  be  accused  of  labour- 
ing this  point  to  excess,  but  I  am  convinced 
that,  for  the  person  whose  ability  is  now 
moderate,  the  rigid  head  until  the  beginning 
of  the  follow-through  is  a  necessity  the 
importance  of  which  cannot  be  overrated. 


CLEEK  AND  IRON  SHOTS        119 

A  first-class  player  knows  whenever  he 
moves  his  head,  and  realizes  that  he  must 
bring  his  club  down  differently  from  the 
way  in  which  it  went  up.  Moreover,  his 
knowledge  of  the  game  is  such  that  he  can 
recover  during  the  swing.  I  do  not  for  a 
moment  urge  that  a  champion  never  moves 
his  head,  but  I  do  say  that  he  very  seldom 
shifts  it  in  anything  like  the  same  degree  as 
a  bad  player.  For  the  latter  to  change  the 
position  to  the  extent  of  twelve  or  fifteen 
inches  during  the  back  swing  is  one  of  the 
commonest  sights  in  the  world.  It  is  a 
mortal  offence  to  the  art  of  golf,  and 
the  prime  determination  of  the  indifferent 
performer  should  be  to  repress  it.  When 
the  first-class  player  moves  his  head,  the 
change  is,  as  a  rule,  so  small  as  to  be  almost 
imperceptible.  Yet  he  personally  is  aware 
of  it,  and  his  errant  head  retrieves  th<* 
situation  by  thinking  to  work  the  club 
back  into  the  proper  position  during  the 
downward  swing.  It  is  too  much  to  expect 
the  average  golfer  to  recover  in  this  way ; 


120  HOW  TO  PLAY  GOLF 

therefore  it  is  a  more  important  matter  for 
him  to  keep  his  head  still  than  it  is  in  the 
case  of  the  accomplished  player. 

Up  to  the  present,  we  have  observed  no 
great  dissimilarity  between  wooden-club 
shots  and  iron-club  shots.  The  first 
difference  is  in  the  matter  of  the  stance. 
As  a  rule,  the  cleek  is  two  or  three  inches 
shorter  than  the  driver  or  brassie,  while  the 
iron  is  a  little  shorter  than  the  cleek.  These 
variations  are  desirable,  and  the  point  to 
remember  is  that  the  shorter  the  shaft  the 
nearer  to  the  ball  the  player  must  stand. 
Sometimes  one  sees  a  person  standing  as 
far  off  for  an  iron  shot  as  he  would  do  for 
a  drive,  and  reaching  the  ball  by  stooping 
down  to  it.  It  is  an  impossible  way  of 
executing  the  required  stroke.  The  toe  of 
the  club  is  cocked  up  in  the  air,  the  body  is 
cramped,  and  an  easy  swing  is  out  of  the 
question.  The  proper  method,  as  it  is 
certainly  the  simplest,  is  to  get  a  trifle  nearer 
for  every  inch  that  the  shaft  is  shorter  than 
that  of  the  wooden  clubs.  You  simply 


CLEEK  AND  IRON  SHOTS        121 

close  in  on  the  ball,  so  to  speak,  in  order  to 
be  able  to  reach  it  without  undue  bending. 
For  the  cleek,  the  feet  are  drawn  just  a  little 
closer  together  than  for  the  driver  or 
brassie  ;  the  ball  is  distinctly  nearer  to  the 
player.  For  the  iron,  the  stance  is  closer 
still.  The  arms  should  have  just  sufficient 
room  to  swing  through  freely  as  the  club 
descends  to  perform  its  work.  They  should 
not  be  allowed  to  touch  the  body ;  but  in  no 
circumstances  should  they  be  stretched 
forward,  because  it  is  necessary  to  preserve 
a  perfect  balance.  However,  if  you  re- 
member not  to  stoop  more  for  these  shots 
than  for  drives,  you  will  naturally  take  up 
a  position  the  proper  distance  from  the  ball, 
and  then  the  arms  will  not  be  induced  to  do 
wayward  tricks. 

The  nearer  the  player  is  to  the  ball,  the 
more  upright  will  be  the  swing.  That  is 
inevitable.  For  the  iron  clubs,  the  swing 
ought  to  be  more  upright  than  for  the  driver 
or  brassie.  It  should  be  a  more  compact 
action  altogether.  Generally  speaking,  the 


122  HOW  TO  PLAY  GOLF 

position  of  the  left  foot  should  alter  less 
than  that  of  the  right — taking  the  drive 
as  the  basis  for  the  stance.  For  a  cleek  or 
iron  shot,  as  for  a  stroke  with  a  wooden  club, 
the  ball  should  be  on  a  line  with  a  point  a 
few  inches  inside  the  left  heel ;  but  the  right 
foot  should  be  brought  nearer  to  the  left 
so  as  to  allow  for  the  introduction  of  that 
element  of  uprightness  into  the  swing. 
The  left  may  be  an  inch  or  so  forward,  but 
the  distance  between  the  two  feet  should 
be  lessened,  mainly  as  a  result  of  the  right's 
advance.  When  the  player  takes  the  iron 
he  should  turn  his  body  slightly  towards 
the  hole.  That  change  will  place  the  right 
foot  even  closer  to  the  ball  than  the  left. 

The  learner  likes  to  hit  hard,  and  he  should 
begin  his  course  of  education  with  the  iron 
by  making  full  shots.  He  should  aim  from 
half  an  inch  to  an  inch  behind  the  ball.  He 
will  find  the  shots  comparatively  easy  and 
— when  he  executes  them  properly — soul- 
satisfying.  Except  for  that  degree  of  up- 
rightness, which  is  enforced  by  the  fact  of 


fl 

5  I 


CLEEK  AND  IRON  SHOTS        123 

the  feet  being  closer  together,  the  swing 
should  be  the  same  as  for  the  wooden  clubs. 
It  should  consist  of  just  the  same  old  opera- 
tion of  winding  up  the  body  from  the  hips 
as  the  arms  go  back,  pivoting  on  the  inside 
of  the  left  foot  from  the  big  joint  to  the 
big  toe,  and  unwinding  the  body  as  the 
arms  return.  If  the  feet  are  too  far  apart, 
it  is  impossible  to  pivot  properly.  When 
the  left  heel  turns  outwards,  it  is  certain 
that  the  player  is  lurching  his  body. 

Do  not  forget  to  aim  at  a  spot  half  an 
inch  or  even  an  inch  behind  the  ball.  This 
applies  to  the  cleek  as  well  as  to  the  iron. 
The  place  on  which  you  need  to  fix  the  eye 
is  the  small  gap  between  the  ball  and  the 
club  when  the  latter  is  grounded  prepara- 
tory to  the  making  of  the  shot.  If  you 
recollect  at  this  moment  of  the  completion 
of  the  address  to  direct  the  vision  at  that 
little  gap,  you  will  see  the  side  of  the  ball, 
which  is  the  part  you  want  to  hit.  It  is 
desirable  to  remember  not  to  have  the  arms 
tucked  right  into  the  body.  This  is  a  fairly 


i24  HOW  TO  PLAY  GOLF 

common  fault ;  the  player,  having  drawn 
nearer  to  the  ball,  seems  to  be  possessed 
by  an  impulse  to  keep  his  arms  so  close  in 
that  they  touch  his  body.  They  should  be 
clear. 

The  distance  of  the  shot  should  be 
governed  by  the  length  of  the  back  swing. 
It  is  a  great  thing  to  always  hit  the  ball 
unfalteringly.  When  only  a  half  shot  is 
needed,  it  is  bad  to  take  the  club  right 
back,  and  then  try  to  check  it  at  the 
moment  of  impact  so  as  to  prevent  the 
ball  going  too  far.  One  often  sees  this 
done,  and  the  result  is  nearly  always  a 
foozle.  Judgment  in  the  execution  of 
approaches  depends  not  upon  deciding 
how  hard  to  strike  the  ball.  The  real 
judgment  consists  of  knowing  just  how 
far  to  take  the  club  back.  Every  player 
must  find  out  for  himself  how  far  he  can 
hit  with  various  lengths  of  back  swings  ; 
the  only  warning  I  offer  is  against  the 
fairly  common  habit  of  paying  no  atten- 
tion at  all  to  the  back  swing,  and  trying 


CLEEK  AND  IRON  SHOTS        125 

to  apply  a  certain  strength  just  as  the 
club  meets  the  ball.  I  fear  nobody  could 
do  that  with  much  success.  When  a  man 
goes  back  a  long  way  for  a  half  shot,  he 
realizes  at  the  critical  moment  that  he 
must  slow  up  a  little  or  he  will  overshoot 
the  mark.  Then  it  is  that  the  whole 
swing  flounders,  and  the  shot  with  it. 

Don't  stoop  unduly  when  using  the 
cleek  or  iron.  Many  people  do  this,  more 
particularly  when  they  take  up  a  stance 
for  the  iron.  If  you  desire  to  get  up  to 
the  top  of  the  swing,  and  you  start  in  a 
squatting  attitude,  you  will  simply  bob 
up  and  down.  And  absolute  steadiness 
of  stance  is  even  more  important  with 
iron  clubs  than  with  the  driver.  An  in- 
clination to  lift  the  body,  which  is  born 
of  a  crouching  posture  during  the  address, 
is  fatal. 

As  alternative  clubs  to  the  cleek,  there 
are  the  driving-mashie  and  the  spoon. 
Each  has  its  virtues.  A  passing  fancy 
sometimes  makes  the  driving-mashie  a 


126  HOW  TO  PLAY  GOLF 

highly  effective  instrument,  while  the  spoon 
is  the  favourite  implement  of  many  golfers. 
By  reason  of  its  loft,  it  is  easier  to  use  than 
the  cleek,  but  the  latter,  when  mastered,  is  by 
far  the  more  likely,  I  think,  to  place  the  ball 
near  the  hole.  It  is  the  more  complaisant 
in  the  matter  of  guiding  the  ball.  Still, 
much  splendid  work  can  be  done  with  the 
spoon,  as  George  Duncan  and  Sandy  Herd 
have  shown  us,  and  I  would  merely  advise 
golfers  who  conceive  a  liking  for  the  club 
not  to  allow  it  to  turn  the  cleek  out  of  the 
bag.  They  doubtless  wish  to  advance; 
and  certain  shots  can  be  made  with  the 
cleek  which  are  practically  outside  the 
range  of  possibility  with  the  spoon.  There 
is,  for  instance,  the  "  push/'  which  can  be 
described  later.  If  the  driving-mashie  or 
spoon  exercise  a  sudden  fascination  over 
the  player,  by  all  means  let  him  succumb, 
and  see  how  he  likes  it.  The  stance  for 
either  of  these  alternative  weapons  is  the 
same  as  for.  the  cleek,  which,  in  due 
course,  he  will  doubtless  reinstate  as  a 


CLEEK  AND  IRON  SHOTS        127 

friend  capable  of  helping  him  in  times  of 
need. 

Of  late  there  has  come  into  vogue  a  club 
called  the  wooden  cleek,  which  is  helpful 
to  the  bad  golfer  because  it  has  a  deeper 
and  broader  face  than  the  iron-headed 
cleek.  The  loft  is  the  same  as  in  the  case 
of  the  latter  instrument,  but  the  big  face 
of  the  wooden  cleek  inspires  confidence. 
There  is  such  a  large  area  with  which  to 
hit  the  ball  that  the  doubter  becomes 
trusting  ;  he  feels  that  some  part  of  the 
club,  anyhow,  will  realize  his  hopes.  It 
requires  a  good  lie  ;  but  if  the  player  is 
convinced  that  it  is  easier  to  use  than  the 
ordinary  cleek,  let  him  use  it.  It  is  sur- 
prising what  a  conviction  of  this  kind 
will  do.  A  case  came  under  my  notice 
not  long  ago.  It  was  that  of  a  man  who 
vowed  that  he  could  always  hit  a  good 
shot  with  his  iron,  but  that  he  was  sure 
to  miss  the  ball  with  his  cleek.  One  day 
he  decided  to  take  a  risk.  "  Give  me  the 
cleek,"  he  said  to  the  caddie.  "  I'll 


128  HOW  TO  PLAY  GOLF 

chance  it."  Sure  enough,  he  missed  the 
globe  three  times.  "  It's  no  use,"  he 
declared,  "  I  must  have  the  iron."  The 
caddie  rummaged  in  the  bag,  and  then 
glanced  at  his  employer.  "  Why,"  he 
said,  "  you've  got  it."  Truly  enough,  the 
player  thought  he  had  been  using  the 
cleek,  and  had  simply  frightened  himself 
into  failure.  Directly  he  realized  that  he 
had  the  iron  in  his  hands,  he  hit  the  ball. 
This  story  may  sound  exaggerated,  but 
it  is  the  truth  ;  nothing  but  the  truth. 


CHAPTER  VII 
MASHIE  SHOTS 

WE  make  our  bow  to  the  mashie. 
Let  it  be  a  friendly  yet  respectful 
salutation,  born  of  a  determination  to 
render  the  introduction  mutually  pleasant. 
For  the  production  of  its  best  points,  the 
mashie  needs  a  special  disposition  of  the 
player's  mental  and  physical  forces.  It 
requires  management  of  a  kind  which  is 
different  in  several  important  details  from 
that  bestowed  upon  the  driver,  brassie, 
cleek,  iron,  and  kindred  instruments.  It 
is  a  club  that  demands  the  utmost  pre- 
cision in  our  handling  of  it ;  for  it  is 
exceedingly  susceptible  to  the  slightest 
departure  from  the  correct  methods. 
That  is  why  it  seems  to  be  about  the 
most  fickle  of  golfing  tools  ;  one  day  the 
best  helpmate  in  the  world,  and  on  another 


129 


i3o  HOW  TO  PLAY  GOLF 

occasion,  the  very  deuce.     The  reason  is 
that  it  is  docile  and  obliging  in  the  highest 
degree  when  it  receives  proper  treatment, 
but  that  any  small  error  of   omission  or 
commission  transforms  it  into  a  veritable 
demon  of  refractoriness.     True  it  is  that 
the  rubber-cored  ball  has  helped  to  miti- 
gate   the     horrors    which    this     severely 
dignified    implement    would    gladly    heap 
upon  the  head  of  the  person  who  used  it 
in  a  way  of  which  it  disapproved.     We 
have    all    seen   players  make  bad  mashie 
shots    and    still    reach    the    green.     That 
hardly    ever   happened    when   the    gutta- 
percha  ball  was  in  vogue,  and  even  now 
the  percentage  of  poor  shots  that  enjoy 
happy  endings  is  not  nearly  so  large  in 
the  case  of  the  mashie  as  it  is  where  other 
clubs    are    concerned.     On    hard    ground, 
a  miss  with  the  driver,  brassie,  cleek,  or 
iron  frequently  entails  no   serious  conse- 
quences ;    but   a  foozle  with  the  mashie 
does   not   often   go   unpenalized.     A  top, 
for  instance,    will    usually  send   the   ball 


MASHIE  SHOTS  131 

into  a  bunker,  or  scuttling  over  the  green. 
There  is  cause  for  complaint  in  the  fact- 
that  a  good  mashie  shot  is  occasionally 
punished,  but  this  is  generally  due  to 
abnormal  condition  of  the  turf  or  faults 
in  the  slopes  of  the  ground.  Taken  all 
round,  there  is  no  more  influential  club 
than  the  mashie,  and  to  the  golfer  who  ex- 
periences difficulty  with  it,  I  would  recom- 
mend a  period  of  practice  with  it  almost 
every  day.  Such  assiduity  will  be  repaid. 

The  feature  of  the  mashie  shot,  the 
trait  that  distinguishes  it  from  every 
other  stroke  which  we  have  so  far  studied, 
is  explainable  in  these  words  :  It  depends 
primarily  upon  the  movements  of  the 
knees.  Hitherto  we  have  been  winding 
up  and  unwinding  our  bodies  from  the 
neck  to  the  very  toes.  Now  that  we  have 
the  mashie  in  hand,  the  process  of  wind- 
ing and  unwinding  will  be  renewed ;  but 
it  must  not  be  allowed  to  have  serious 
influence  below  the  knees.  The  less  it 
causes  the  feet  to  shift  the  better.  We 


i32  HOW  TO  PLAY  GOLF 

want  to  be  very  steady  on  our  feet — 
almost  as  steady  as  if  they  were  stuck  to 
the  ground.  As  they  do  not  happen  to 
be  so  fastened  (except,  perhaps,  during 
the  winter  months  on  those  courses  of 
tenacious  clay)  we  shall  move  them  a 
trifle;  but,  if  possible,  we  shall  not  lift 
either  heel  off  the  ground.  The  outstand- 
ing fault  of  most  bad  players  in  this  branch 
of  the  game  is  that  they  do  not  use  their 
knees  sufficiently.  Their  methods  are  of 
many  varieties,  and  sometimes  almost  in- 
describable ;  but  in  the  abstract,  their 
fatal  error  is  that  they  regard  a  mashie 
as  being  of  the  same  breed  as  an  iron.  It 
is  of  a  different  nature,  and  except  in  the 
case  of  a  first-class  golfer,  who  has  acquired 
by  lifelong  study  a  mastery  over  the  club 
which  enables  him  to  take  liberties  with 
it,  the  mashie  simply  will  not  tolerate 
such  discourtesy. 

For  the  ordinary  golfer,  I  would  seldom 
recommend  more  than  a  three-quarter 
swing  with  this  particular  (very  par- 


MASHIE  SHOTS  133 

ticular)  club,  and  there  should  be  no 
pirouetting.  I  do  not  mean  to  suggest 
that  wild  exuberance  on  the  feet  is  toler- 
able with  the  clubs  of  longer  range,  but 
we  know  that  when  we  take  those  imple- 
ments, we  want  to  turn  freely  and  pivot  on 
the  inside  of  the  left  foot,  from  the  big  joint 
to  the  end  of  the  big  toe.  In  the  ordinary 
way,  we  do  not  foot-pivot  with  the  mashie. 
The  club  objects  to  it.  Our  first  necessity 
is  to  obtain  stability  of  stance,  because  we 
need  to  be  exact  in  the  way  in  which  we 
strike  the  ball,  and  even  a  small  measure 
of  the  foot  freedom  in  which  we  have 
previously  revelled  may  cause  us  to  apply 
the  wrong  strength  or  direction  to  the  shot. 
Sometimes  it  is  necessary  to  make  a 
neck-or-nothing  swipe  with  a  mashie,  but 
those  occasions  are  rare.  Indeed,  they 
are  presented  only  when  it  is  a  matter  of 
carrying  some  high  trees,  or  other  lofty 
obstacles.  Placed  in  such  a  situation, 
the  golfer  may  reasonably  feel  constrained 
to  take  a  full  swing,  and  then  he  will  have 


134  HOW  TO  PLAY  GOLF 

to  stand  in  much  the  same  way  as  for  the 
iron,  and  pivot  on  the  left  foot  in  the 
manner  previously  described.  In  most 
cases,  however,  he  will  not  need  more 
than  a  half  or  three-quarter  swing  with 
a  mashie  because,  in  normal  circumstances, 
he  will  be  well  advised  to  use  the  club  only 
when  he  finds  himself  within,  say,  one 
hundred  yards  of  the  hole. 

Let  us  first  consider  the  stance.  The 
player  should  be  nearer  to  the  ball  than 
for  the  iron,  with  his  body  turned  well 
towards  the  hole.  The  left  foot  should 
be  pointing  outwards;  the  ball  should 
be  almost  opposite  the  left  heel.  The 
position  of  the  right  foot  is  of  even  greater 
importance.  Nearly  all  the  data  that  can 
be  brought  to  bear  on  the  subject  supports 
the  contention  that  it  is  best  to  play 
mashie  shots  off  the  right  leg.  The  right 
foot  should  be  well  in  front  of  the  left,  and 
nearer  to  the  ball  than  it  has  been  for  any 
other  shot  which  we  have  thus  far  dis- 
cussed. It  should  occupy  a  line  which, 


MASHIE  SHOTS  135 

if  extended,  would  be  parallel  with  the  sole 
of  the  club.  In  this,  as  in  other  strokes, 
it  is  necessary  to  ground  the  implement 
so  that  the  striking  surface  is  at  right 
angles  to  the  direction  in  which  we  are 
hoping  to  make  our  way.  It  is  clear 
that  if  the  golfer  place  his  right  foot  in  a 
line  parallel  with  the  sole  of  his  mashie, 
and  have  his  left  foot  pointing  outwards, 
with  the  ball  opposite  the  heel  of  that  foot, 
he  must  turn  his  body  towards  the  green. 
He  cannot  well  do  anything  else.  He 
will  turn  it  to  just  the  proper  extent  if 
he  remembers  to  have  the  sole  of  the  club 
and  the  right  foot  absolutely  square  to 
the  line  of  play.  Standing  thus,  with 
the  feet  sufficiently  close  together  to 
permit  of  a  comfortable  bending  of  the 
knees,  he  will  be  in  the  correct  position 
for  the  most  common  form  of  mashie 
shot,  which  is  the  pitch-and-run.  The 
stance  is  a  matter  of  great  consequence, 
and  it  should  be  closely  studied. 
Now  as  to  the  method  of  winding  up 


136  HOW  TO  PLAY  GOLF 

and  unwinding  the  body ;  that  is  to  say, 
the  method  of  making  the  swing.  As  I 
have  already  said,  the  knees  are  all- 
important.  There  should  be  no  rigidity 
about  any  part  of  the  body  except  the 
head  and  feet.  The  head  must  be  still ; 
and  the  feet  must  be  planted  firmly  on  the 
ground.  For  the  rest,  the  posture  should 
be  one  of  moderate  relaxation,  with  a 
distinct  element  of  slackness  at  the  knees. 
The  pivoting,  so  to  speak,  has  to  be  done 
at  the  knees,  which  must  be  in  such  a 
position  at  the  start  that  they  can  control 
the  twisting  of  the  body  without  allowing 
such  twisting  to  be  communicated  to  the 
feet.  In  short,  the  player  practically 
screws  himself  into  position  with  his  knees, 
and  unscrews  himself  with  his  knees — 
although  he  must  not  forget  to  so  "  time  " 
the  movements  of  his  arms  and  hips  that 
they  work  in  perfect  unison  with  the 
lower  joints.  Knees,  hips,  and  arms 
should  act  in  concert;  the  proper  swing 
for  the  mashie  will  then  result. 


•a -a 

I 


MASHIE  SHOTS  137 

As  the  player  stands  addressing  the 
ball  with  a  firm  grip  of  the  club,  especially 
in  regard  to  the  thumbs  and  forefingers, 
let  the  weight  of  the  body  be  supported 
by  the  right  leg.  To  get  comfortably 
into  that  position,  it  will  be  necessary  to 
bend  the  right  knee.  As  the  club  is 
taken  back,  the  body  screwing  round  at 
the  hips  rather  less  freely  than  in  the  case 
of  longer  shots,  the  right  leg  naturally 
stiffens.  In  fact,  the  knee  of  that  leg 
really  governs  the  stroke.  Directly  it  is 
rigid,  the  screwing  should  stop.  The  back- 
ward swing  is  complete.  The  left  knee 
will  have  bent  slightly,  as  shown  in  the 
photograph  of  the  mashie  shot  at  the  top 
of  the  swing. 

It  cannot  have  avoided  doing  so  if  you 
have  remembered  not  to  lift  the  foot  from 
the  ground.  The  safest  advice  is  that  the 
player  should  not  raise  either  heel  from 
the  ground  when  executing  anything  less 
than  a  full  mashie  shot.  And  the  latter, 
as  I  have  already  said,  is  merely  a  stroke 


138  HOW  TO  PLAY  GOLF 

for  an  exceptional  occasion.  For  the 
three-quarter,  half,  or  shorter  swing — that 
is  to  say,  for  the  normal  mashie  shot — 
the  left  foot  should  be  flat  on  the  turf  as 
the  left  knee  bends  outwards.  It  is  easily 
possible  to  obtain  a  three-quarter  swing 
without  moving  that  foot  one  iota.  The 
downward  swing,  which  amounts  to  un- 
winding the  body  by  returning  the  right 
knee  to  the  bent  position,  ought  to  be 
satisfactory  so  long  as  the  player  resists 
these  three  common  failings  : — Dropping 
the  right  shoulder  with  a  jerk;  bending 
the  right  wrist  at  the  moment  of  impact 
in  a  sudden  effort  to  push  the  club  under 
the  ball ;  and  looking  up  too  quickly. 
These  are  golfing  sins  in  any  kind  of  shot ; 
but  the  temptation  to  commit  them  is 
never  stronger  than  when  the  mashie  is 
being  used.  The  right  shoulder  should 
come  round  with  rhythmic  steadiness,  and 
it  will  usually  do  so  if  the  executant  sternly 
repress  the  inclination  to  bend  his  right 
wrist  as  he  comes  to  the  ball — the  result 


II 


MASHIE  SHOTS  139 

of  a  flash  of  fear  that  he  may  not,  after  all, 
get  the  face  of  the  club  under  the  object. 
The  club  will  go  under  the  ball  all  right 
if  the  swing  be  proper.  The  player  should 
aim,  as  with  the  iron,  about  half  an  inch 
behind  the  ball ;  the  loft  of  the  mashie 
will  then  do  what  so  many  persons  try  to 
accomplish  with  their  right  wrists.  I  am 
certain  that  forty  of  every  fifty  bad  golfers 
owe  their  weakness  with  the  mashie  to 
this  obsession  in  the  matter  of  trying 
to  shovel  the  ball  into  the  air.  They 
endeavour  to  carry  it,  so  to  speak,  on 
the  face  of  the  club.  That  is  impossible. 
What  usually  happens  is  that  they  strike 
the  ground  about  three  inches  behind  the 
ball,  and  a  fearful  foozle  results.  If  they 
could  summon  the  determination  to  hit 
their  mashie  shots  with  the  same  freedom 
from  anxiety  to  scoop  the  ball  as  they  enjoy 
when  they  are  driving,  they  would  improve 
rapidly.  The  club  will  produce  the  loft ; 
the  player  need  not  bother  about  it.  A 
good  golfer  when  using  the  mashie  thumps 


i4o  HOW  TO  PLAY  GOLF 

the  ball.  He  never  scoops  it.  That  is 
the  difference  between  the  right  way  and 
the  wrong  way. 

The  desire  to  look  up  quickly  is  a 
natural  one.  When  we  are  playing  an 
approach  of  this  kind,  the  spot  which  we 
are  trying  to  reach  is  near  and  well  defined. 
It  is  the  space  within  a  few  yards  of  the 
flag.  Consequently,  there  is  anxiety  to 
see  immediately  whether  the  ball  is  there. 
It  will  never  be  there  unless  we  look  at  it 
long  enough  to  strike  it  accurately.  The 
head  must  be  kept  still  with  heroic  deter- 
mination until  the  follow  through  is  under 
way.  The  action  of  the  right  foot  is 
purely  a  matter  of  the  finish,  when  the 
ball  has  been  despatched  on  its  journey  ; 
but  the  player  will  be  assisted  to  preserve 
the  correct  balance  for  the  whole  stroke 
if  he  determine  to  have  that  right  foot 
fixed  to  the  ground  even  at  the  end  of 
the  shot.  He  can  move  it  to  such  an 
extent  that  he  turns  on  to  the  inside  of 
it  at  the  finish  of  the  follow-through,  but 


MASHIE  SHOTS  141 

he  should  be  chary  of  lifting  either  heel  off 
the  turf  at  any  point  of  the  swing.  It  is 
dangerous  to  give  such  freedom  to  the  feet, 
because  it  is  apt  to  undermine  that  perfect 
stability  of  stance  which  is  so  necessary. 

Here,  then,  we  have  the  formula  for 
the  ordinary  pitch-and-run  stroke  with 
the  mashie  —  a  formula  which  has  the 
approval  in  practice  of  all  the  good  players 
I  have  ever  seen,  and  the  principles  of 
which  apply  from  the  three-quarter  swing 
down  to  the  little  chip.  There  is  another 
shot  of  a  more  complicated  character. 
It  is  the  mashie  stroke  played  with  cut. 
It  is  one  of  the  shots  that  have  helped 
to  raise  golf  to  the  standard  of  an  art. 
Unfortunately,  it  does  not  now  produce 
with  such  certainty  the  effects  which  it 
invariably  gave  in  the  days  of  the  gutty. 
It  was  possible  in  those  times  to  pitch 
the  ball  right  up  to  the  hole  with  the 
assurance  that,  if  the  cut  had  been 
properly  applied,  there  would  not  be  a 
yard  of  run  at  the  finish  of  the  carry. 


142  HOW  TO  PLAY  GOLF 

The  distance  had  to  be  accurately 
estimated  ;  and  the  ability  to  impart  the 
spin  had  to  be  cultivated.  Knowledge 
systematized  and  practised  in  this  way 
would  give  the  desired  result  with  un- 
failing regularity.  Nowadays  one  cannot 
always  be  sure  what  the  ball  will  do.  It 
is  necessary  to  allow  for  a  certain  amount 
of  run,  and  my  own  personal  experience 
is  that  the  player  is  apt  to  change  his 
mind  during  the  swing  as  to  the  spot  at 
which  he  shall  make  the  ball  alight.  He 
does  not  know  how  far  it  will  skid,  even 
though  it  be  influenced  by  all  the  cut 
imaginable.  It  is  a  great  pity  that  this 
element  of  uncertainty  has  been  intro- 
duced into  a  really  beautiful  shot.  An- 
other misfortune  is  that  many  of  the 
younger  golfers  of  undoubted  skill  are 
so  imbued  with  the  spirit  that  makes 
them  play  for  the  pull  that  they  never 
try  to  master  this  shot,  which  is  nearly 
all  carry.  They  do  nothing  but  pitch 
and  run. 


MASHEE  SHOTS  143 

Still,  if  the  mashie  shot  with  cut  has 
been  discouraged  by  the  bouncing  pro- 
perties of  the  rubber-core,  it  remains  a 
valuable  stroke,  and  often  the  only  one 
that  can  be  attempted  with  any  hope  of 
laying  the  ball  close  to  the  hole.  We 
may  feel  almost  distracted  when  we  reflect 
that,  in  any  case,  it  is  sure  to  run  some 
distance,  we  know  not  what ;  but  we  must 
try  it  when  we  realize  that  the  ordinary 
shot  will  of  a  certainty  run  too  far.  The 
stance  is  naturally  a  matter  of  great  im- 
portance. 

There  should  be,  as  previously,  a  distinct 
bend  at  the  knees.  The  right  foot  should 
be  advanced  two  or  three  inches  nearer 
to  the  ball.  The  left  foot  should  be  drawn 
back  a  little,  making  the  toe  point  more 
towards  the  hole  than  ever.  The  ball 
should  be  just  about  opposite  the  middle 
of  the  left  foot.  It  can  be  readily  per- 
ceived that  the  effect  of  this  stance 
will  be  to  turn  the  whole  body  more 
in  the  direction  of  the  hole  than  for 


144  HOW  TO  PLAY  GOLF 

the  plain  mashie  stroke.  That  is  as  it 
should  be. 

Now  what  we  want  to  do  is  to  draw 
the  face  of  the  club  quickly  and  cleanly 
across  the  ball  at  the  instant  of  impact. 
At  the  critical  moment,  the  implement 
must  be  travelling  across  the  line  of  flight, 
from  right  to  left,  so  that  directly  it  touches 
the  ball  the  latter  begins  to  spin.  Clearly, 
then,  we  shall  not  swing  as  in  ordinary  cir- 
cumstances. This  cut  shot  is  one  of  the 
few  strokes  in  golf  in  which  the  head  and 
body  must — and  should — sway  a  trifle  as 
the  club  goes  up. 

Instead  of  keeping  the  arms  close  to 
the  body,  the  player  should  push  them 
away  from  him  during  the  backward 
swing.  He  should  push  them  away  to 
such  an  extent  that,  as  the  right  knee 
stiffens,  the  weight  is  thrown  on  to  that 
leg  instead  of  on  to  the  left.  There  will 
be  no  twisting  at  the  hips.  The  body 
will  simply  follow  the  club  back.  It  is 
the  necessity  of  this  slight  swaying  move- 


MASHIE  SHOTS  145 

ment  that  renders  the  shot  so  difficult  of 
perfect  accomplishment.  Do  not  strain 
to  take  the  mashie  up  too  far  (the  cut 
shot  is  generally  a  fairly  short  one)  ;  then 
there  will  be  little  danger  of  overswaying. 
The  club  will  come  down  in  the  same 
track  as  that  which  it  occupied  when 
ascending.  At  the  moment  of  impact 
the  arms  should  straighten,  and  the  wrists 
should  tighten.  From  the  nature  of  the 
upward  swing,  the  club  is  necessarily 
coming  down  across  the  ball,  but  every- 
thing should  be  done  to  accentuate  that 
effect.  Do  not  be  afraid  to  make  a  dis- 
tinct attempt  to  draw  the  mashie  sharply 
and  cleanly  across  the  ball  at  the  instant 
when  the  two  come  into  contact.  It  is 
a  shot  for  a  skilful  golfer  because,  to  make 
the  most  of  it,  the  object  must  be  struck 
with  the  utmost  accuracy.  For  that 
reason,  it  is  advisable  to  hold  the  club 
at  the  lower  part  of  the  grip,  the  better 
to  keep  the  head  of  the  implement  under 
complete  control.  The  place  to  play  for  is 


IO 


146  HOW  TO  PLAY  GOLF 

a  spot  a  yard  or  so  to  the  left  of  the  pin 
since  the  ball,  if  cut  in  the  proper  way,  will 
naturally  screw  to  the  right  on  reaching 
the  ground. 

Nowadays,  a  great  number  of  people 
like  to  play  their  approaches  with  niblicks. 
Being  much  more  lofted  than  the  mashie, 
the  niblick  is  well  suited  to  the  purpose. 
It  imbues  the  golfer  with  a  deal  of  con- 
fidence, inasmuch  as  he  feels  that  the  ball 
will  not  run  far  from  such  a  club.  And 
confidence  is  an  asset.  For  the  indifferent 
golfer,  however,  I  cannot  help  thinking  that 
the  niblick  is  considerably  harder  to  use 
than  the  mashie.  The  former  club  usually 
has  a  very  sharp  edge,  and  unless  the  ball 
be  hit  with  great  precision,  that  edge  is 
apt  to  stick  into  the  ground  and  spoil  the 
shot  as  well  as  the  turf.  Nowadays  tools 
called  mashie-niblicks  are  popular.  A 
warning  that  I  would  offer  to  the  player 
who  fancies  a  niblick  for  approaching  is 
that  he  should  not  use  it  on  an  important 
occasion  unless  he  is  thoroughly  intimate 


MASHIE  SHOTS  147 

with  it.  To  know  the  driving  power  of 
the  club  is  essential.  That  power  varies 
amazingly  in  different  niblicks,  and  unless 
you  are  aware  from  constant  use  how  far 
the  ball  will  go  off  the  implement,  it  is 
better  to  employ  an  ordinary  mashie. 
And  once  you  have  come  to  understand 
the  strength  of  your  niblick  in  approach 
shots,  do  not  change  it  because  it  fails  you 
once  or  twice — unless,  of  course,  it  has  an 
obvious  fault.  It  will  take  you  a  long 
while  to  learn  the  peculiarities  of  another. 
To  know  your  niblick — if  you  employ  it 
for  that  department  of  the  game  which 
we  are  discussing — is  a  matter  of  supreme 
importance.  In  bunkers,  you  often  have 
to  use  it  whether  you  are  on  good  terms 
with  it  or  not. 

Personally,  I  have  come  to  like  the  club 
very  well  for  approaching.  It  was  with  a 
niblick  that  I  played  the  best  shot  of 
my  life.  The  occasion  was  a  tournament 
at  Northwood  a  few  years  ago.  At  the 
eighteenth  hole,  I  sliced  my  second  shot. 


148  HOW  TO  PLAY  GOLF 

The  ball  lay  within  about  four  feet  of  the 
club  house,  which  was  now  between  me  and 
the  hole.  As  you  can  imagine,  it  was  a 
pretty  big  stymie,  and  for  a  while  I  hardly 
knew  how  to  tackle  it  except  by  playing  out 
to  the  left.  At  last  I  decided  to  try  and 
carry  the  building,  and  reach  the  green. 
The  people  on  the  veranda  looked  rather 
surprised  when  I  asked  them  to  stand 
aside  in  case  I  should  strike  them.  The 
veranda  was  protected  by  wire  netting, 
but  I  knew  that  I  should  have  to  hit  the 
ball  hard  to  make  it  rise  almost  straight 
into  the  air  until  it  reached  the  top  of  the 
club-house,  and  put  enough  spin  on  it  to 
cause  it  to  carry  forward  thirty  yards  to 
the  green.  It  is  not  difficult  to  get  a  ball 
to  rise  almost  perpendicularly,  but  to 
make  it  start  to  move  forward  when  it  is 
thirty  or  forty  feet  from  the  ground  is  a 
different  matter,  and  I  was  afraid  that,  if 
the  shot  failed,  I  might  send  the  ball 
through  the  netting  and  hit  somebody. 
So,  smilingly,  they  moved  aside.  I  used 


! 


5^  "" 
^  a 

tit  s 


MASHIE  SHOTS  149 

a  niblick  for  the  shot.  The  ball  flew  up, 
moving  forward  no  more  than  a  yard  until 
it  was  about  thirty  feet  in  the  air  ;  then 
it  went  on,  carried  the  club-house,  and 
stopped  a  yard  from  the  hole.  And  then 
I  missed  the  putt.  That  was  a  wretched 
finish;  but  the  shot  from  directly  behind 
the  building  was  the  best  I  ever  played, 
and  I  am  frankly  and  boyishly  proud  of  it. 
Occasions  when  the  running-up  approach 
offers  the  simplest  means  of  reaching  the 
vicinity  of  the  hole  are  becoming  more 
and  more  numerous.  There  are  not  so 
many  cross-bunkers  as  there  used  to  be, 
and,  in  their  absence,  it  is  sometimes 
safest  to  keep  such  a  lively  article  as  the 
rubber-cored  ball  close  to  the  ground  all 
the  way.  For  this  stroke  it  is  desirable 
to  stand  more  forward  than  for  the  ordinary 
mashie  shot ;  the  hands  should  be  in  front 
of  the  ball.  This  will  tend  to  keep  the 
ball  low.  If  the  shot  is  being  played 
with  an  iron  or  mashie  so  as  to  produce 
a  slight  loft  at  the  start  in  order  to  skim 


150  HOW  TO  PLAY  GOLF 

over  rough  ground  and  finish  with  a  run, 
it  is  necessary  to  impart  a  pull  to  the  ball. 
The  pull  will  make  it  run  ;  without  that 
influence,  the  ball  might  collide  with  a 
wormcast,  or  some  other  obstacle,  and  stop 
almost  immediately.  With  the  pull,  it 
will  go  forward  in  spite  of  its  contact  with 
such  an  unnecessary  nuisance.  The  thing 
is  easily  done.  It  is  a  matter  of  striking 
the  back  of  the  ball  quite  cleanly,  and 
turning  the  right  hand  over  at  the  moment 
of  impact.  That  turning  over  of  the  right 
hand  (the  action  of  locking  a  door  with  a 
key,  as  it  has  been  aptly  described  by 
Mr  J.  L.  Law)  is  the  essence  of  the  pull. 
It  is  important,  however,  not  to  make  the 
action  too  emphatic.  Perhaps  it  would  be 
better  to  suggest  a  half-turn  of  the  key  in 
the  lock  in  order  to  produce  the  right  effect 
on  the  golf  course.  The  distance  which 
you  take  the  club  back  must  be  governed, 
as  in  other  cases,  by  the  length  of  shot 
required,  but  it  is  worthy  of  remembrance 
that  you  can  get  a  long  way  with  a  short 


THE    RUNNING-UP    SHOT 

Finish.     The  ris'ht  hand  has  turned  half  over,  as  -will  be  seen  by  comparing  this  picture  with  that 

of  the  finish  for  the  ordinary  tnashie  shot.    The  body  is  almost  erect,  with  tlit  +,ead leaning  towards 

•where  the  ball  has  been,  but  this  position  must  not  be  assumed  until  the  ball  has  been  struck 


MASHIE  SHOTS  151 

back-swing  by  playing  in  the  manner 
indicated.  My  own  running-up  mashie  is 
my  mongrel  club.  It  is  nearly  straight- 
faced,  and  it  is  wonderfully  useful  for  odd 
jobs.  It  gets  me  out  of  long  grass ;  it 
keeps  the  ball  low  against  the  wind ;  it 
runs  me  up ;  it  seems  to  be  always  coming 
in  handy  when  no  thoroughbred  would 
meet  the  situation.  A  good  mongrel  club 
is  a  treasure. 

Well,  we  have  approached  the  hole  in 
a  variety  of  ways.  It  is  high  time  that 
we  were  on  the  green. 


CHAPTER  VIII 
ON  THE  GREEN 

PUTTING  is  a  delicate  matter,  and  I, 
of  all  people,  ought  to  write  about  it 
in  a  delicate  way.  The  reader  of  this 
book  who  has  honoured  me  by  noticing 
my  doings  on  the  links  during  recent 
years,  and  has  observed  my  infinite 
capacity  for  missing  little  putts,  may 
arrive  at  the  conclusion  that  I  lack  nothing 
in  presumptuousness  when  I  offer  in- 
struction as  to  the  best  way  of  getting 
the  ball  into  the  hole  from  a  short  dis- 
tance. Except,  however,  for  emphasiz- 
ing a  few  fundamental  truths  which  are- 
immutably  correct,  I  do  not  intend  to 
tell  anybody  how  to  putt.  There  are 
many  ways  of  performing  the  operation 
successfully.  I  can  claim,  however,  to 
be  in  a  position  to  explain  how  not  to 


152 


ON  THE  GREEN  153 

putt.  I  think  I  know  as  well  as  anybody 
how  not  to  do  it. 

Putting  is,  in  a  sense,  a  pastime  distinct 
from  golf.  Half  the  secret  of  accom- 
plishing it  triumphantly  lies,  I  suppose, 
in  realizing  that  it  is  not  very  difficult. 
When  driving  or  approaching,  it  is  neces- 
sary for  the  player  to  remember  certain 
established  principles,  and  follow  them 
to  the  letter  if  he  would  produce  the 
desired  result.  There  is  one  valuable 
precept  which  applies  to  putting  as  strongly 
as  to  any  other  shot  in  the  game.  That 
maxim  is :  "  Keep  the  head  still."  As 
regards  stance  and  manner  of  hitting  the 
ball,  it  is  for  the  individual  to  discover  on 
the  green  the  means  that  suit  him  best 
with  the  club  that  gives  him  most  con- 
fidence. The  finest  way  to  putt  is  the 
way  that  gets  the  ball  into  the  hole.  And 
confidence  is  half  the  battle.  Without 
it,  putting  is  not  merely  difficult ;  it  is 
impossible. 

The  reader  may  not  need  to  be  reminded 


154  HOW  TO  PLAY  GOLF 

that,  of  late  years,  I  have  often  been  lack- 
ing in  that  valuable  quality  called  con- 
fidence. Especially  has  this  been  the 
case  in  connexion  with  downright  easy 
putts — shots  varying  in  length  from  six 
inches  to  four  or  five  feet.  Let  me  un- 
burden my  soul ;  let  me  relate  just  what 
I  have  done  wrongly  on  hundreds  of 
occasions,  just  why  I  have  done  it,  and 
just  how  I  have  sought  to  cure  myself — 
sought  with  some  success,  if  I  may  judge 
by  my  putting  during  the  period  in  which 
this  book  was  written. 

Perhaps  it  will  be  best  if  I  reverse  the 
order  of  the  ordeal,  and  start  with  the 
cure.  On  occasions  I  have  gone  on  to  the 
course  in  the  rapidly  gathering  gloom, 
when,  in  playing  even  a  short  putt,  the 
character  of  the  ground  between  the  ball 
and  the  hole  has  been  hard  to  distinguish. 
I  have  seen  the  ball  and  the  hole  ;  and 
found  that  I  could  nearly  always  put  the 
former  into  the  latter — simply  because, 
it  seemed  to  me,  I  had  not  worried  to 


ON  THE  GREEN  155 

search  for  intervening  difficulties.  If  the 
golfer  will  adjourn  to  a  green  to  practise 
putting  in  the  dusk  of  an  evening,  I  feel 
sure  that  he  will  find  the  whole  business 
much  easier  than  it  seems  in  the  daytime. 
With  light  just  sufficient  to  enable  him 
to  detect  the  dim  outlines  of  the  slopes, 
but  not  enough  to  give  him  the  oppor- 
tunity of  exaggerating  their  horrors,  he 
will  discover  himself  putting  with  splendid 
self-reliance  and  success.  Care  is  essential ; 
but  I  firmly  believe  that,  if  you  feel  anxious 
and  are  determined  to  look  diligently  for 
complications  along  the  line,  you  will  find 
them  all  right,  even  though  they  have  no 
existence  outside  your  own  mind. 

That  remark,  however,  merely  serves 
to  accentuate  the  inner  peculiarity  of 
putting,  and  its  difference  from  any  other 
department  of  the  game.  In  drives  and 
iron  shots,  there  are  degrees  of  prosperity. 
You  may  not  hit  your  drive  quite  pro- 
perly, but  you  may  still  be  on  the  course 
without  serious  loss  of  distance.  The 


156  HOW  TO  PLAY  GOLF 

fate  of  a  short  putt  is  an  extreme  ;  it  is 
either  perfect  or  ghastly.  There  is  no 
mediocrity,  no  chance  of  recovery.  That 
is  why,  I  presume,  the  stroke  is  so  trying ; 
it  is  so  fateful.  To  be  able  to  appreciate 
its  intricacies  at  precisely  their  correct 
value,  and  treat  them  accordingly,  is  one 
of  the  secrets  of  successful  putting.  They 
must  not  be  underrated,  because  some- 
times they  really  are  serious;  but  when 
they  insist  upon  presenting  themselves 
in  a  portentous  way,  the  poor  victim  is 
a  person  to  be  pitied.  They  get  on  his 
nerves  to  such  an  extent  that  he  simply 
cannot  keep  his  head  still  during  the 
stroke.  And  so  he  fails.  In  the  dusk, 
when  the  survey  of  the  line  in  minute 
detail  is  impossible,  putting  really  is  easy. 
At  least,  so  I  have  found  it.  It  is  a  strange 
remedy  to  get  out  in  the  gloom  in  order  to 
obtain  confidence,  but  it  is  no  stranger 
than  the  disease. 

I  suppose  that,  at  some  time  or  other, 
nearly   everybody   has   suffered   from    in- 


ON  THE  GREEN  157 

capacity  within  four  feet  of  the  hole. 
In  my  own  case,  the  attack  was  painfully 
protracted ;  I  can  only  hope  that  I  am 
justified  in  speaking  of  it  now  in  the  past 
tense.  I  have  never  felt  nervous  when 
taking  part  in  a  golf  tournament ;  this 
lack  of  confidence  which  overtook  me 
when  I  played  a  short  putt  was  some- 
thing altogether  worse  than  nervousness. 
As  I  stood  addressing  the  ball,  I  would 
watch  for  my  right  hand  to  jump.  At 
the  end  of  about  two  seconds,  I  would 
not  be  looking  at  the  ball  at  all.  My 
gaze  would  have  become  riveted  on  my 
right  hand.  I  simply  could  not  resist 
the  desire  to  discover  what  it  was  going 
to  do.  Directly  I  felt  that  it  was  about 
to  jump,  I  would  snatch  at  the  ball  in  a 
desperate  effort  to  play  the  shot  before 
the  involuntary  movement  could  take 
effect.  Up  would  go  my  head  and  body 
with  a  start,  and  off  would  go  the  ball — 
anywhere  but  on  the  proper  line.  Such 
was  the  outcome  of  a  loss  of  confidence. 


x6o  HOW  TO  PLAY  GOLF 

golfer  who  possesses  a  characteristic  on 
the  green  such  as  that  described,  and  who 
thrives  on  it,  is  justified  in  his  unortho- 
doxy.  There  is  no  truer  saying  than  that 
which  expresses  the  belief  that  putting 
is  an  inspiration,  and  it  is  certain  that  we 
do  not  all  adopt  the  same  pose  in  moments 
of  inspiration.  Consequently  let  the 
player  putt  in  the  way  that  suits  him  ; 
the  point  that  I  am  trying  to  emphasize 
is  that  it  is  not  much  use  for  the  average 
golfer  to  try  this  body  movement.  In 
ninety-nine  persons  out  of  a  hundred,  it 
would  be  fatal.  Accurate  judgment  of 
strength  comes  with  practice  ;  the  chief 
difficulty  is  to  make  the  ball  travel  in  the 
proper  direction.  In  nearly  all  cases,  the 
missing  of  short  putts  is  caused  by  the 
moving  of  the  head.  If  you  can  summon 
the  determination  to  continue  looking  at 
the  spot  where  the  ball  has  been  for  a 
second  or  two  after  you  have  struck 
it,  you  will  not  often  miss  a  short  putt. 
But  the  accomplishment  of  that  feat  of 


•*  ••• 


1 


ON  THE  GREEN  161 

restraint  simply  means  that  you  are  pos- 
sessed of  confidence  ;    it  means  that  you 
know  that  the  ball  has  gone  into  the  hole, 
so  that  you  are  not  in  a  hurry  to  gaze  at 
the  result.     The  best   way  to   encourage 
this  comforting  faith  is  to  keep  the  head 
down  till  the  finish  of  the  follow-through. 
Twelve  or  fifteen  years  ago,  when  putt- 
ing never  gave  me  the  slightest  trouble,  I 
always  played  on  the  green  a  stroke  which 
was  simply  a  condensed  form  of  the  push- 
shot.     I  addressed  the  ball  with  the  hands 
very  slightly  in  front  of  it,  imparted  back- 
spin  to  it  by  the  use  of  the  wrists,  and 
grazed  the  grass  several  inches  in  front  of 
the  spot  from  which  the  ball  had  been 
struck.     That    was    when    I    employed    a 
putting-cleek  for  the  business.     With  the 
skittish  rubber-cored  ball,  I  do  not  fancy 
,the  push-shot  on  the  green.     I  endeavour 
to  play  a  pendulum  stroke,  which  induces 
a  steady  follow-through  with  the  arms — 
not  the  body.      Taking  it  all  round,  that 
is  perhaps  the  simplest  and  best  means 


162  HOW  TO  PLAY  GOLF 

of  attaining  the  end.     With  the  help  of 

Mr  Arthur  Brown  I  have  devised  for  the 

purpose  a  club  which,  while  it  embraces 

the  main  points  of  nearly  every  well-known 

brand  of  putter,  is  distinct  from  anything 

else.     I  am  frankly  enthusiastic  about  it ; 

its  lie  and  balance  seem  to  be  such  that 

one  simply  cannot  help  getting  the  ball 

into  the  hole  with  it.     What  this  change 

means  to  a  man  who  has  undergone  the 

torture  which  I  have  suffered  on  the  green 

during  recent  years,  I  cannot  adequately 

explain.     It  is  heavenly.     Only  the  player 

who  has  missed  hundreds  of  holeable  putts 

in  a  season  is  in  a  position  to  appreciate  it. 

I  cannot  believe  that  my  new  friend  is 

going  to  play  me  false.     Such  is  the  effect 

of  confidence  ;    the  quality  which,  I  know 

full  well,  has  a  way  of  coming  and  going 

without  giving  any  reason. 

The  choice  of  grip,  like  that  of  club, 
must  be  a  matter  of  individual  preference. 
It  is  desirable  to  have  the  two  hands  over- 
lapping, or  at  least  touching  ;  for  the  rest, 


ON  THE  GREEN  163 

the  player  is  well  advised  in  holding  the 
club  in  the  manner  that  he  fancies.  Do 
not,  however,  allow  the  hands  to  be  even 
a  sixteenth  of  an  inch  apart  on  the  shaft ; 
the  issue  of  such  separation  is  nearly 
certain  to  be  fatal.  Since  I  saw  Mr  W.  J. 
Travis  play  at  Sandwich  in  1904,  I  have 
always  regarded  his  grip  as  theoretically 
the  best  one.  So  far  as  I  can  remember, 
what  he  does  is  to  overlap  with  the  first 
and  second  fingers  of  the  left  hand.  He 
places  those  fingers  over  the  third  and 
little  fingers  of  the  right  hand.  It  might 
be  sufficient  merely  to  put  the  forefinger 
of  the  left  hand  over  the  little  finger 
of  the  right.  I  have  tried  this  kind  of 
hold,  and  done  exceedingly  well  with  it 
during  periods  of  respite  from  the  agony 
of  watching  for  that  wretched  jump.  If 
the  reader  will  experiment  with  it,  he  will 
find  that  it  very  greatly  reduces  the  danger 
of  pushing  the  club  away  from  the  feet 
during  the  backward  swing.  It  is  one 
of  the  perils  of  putting,  dependent  as  it  is 


164  HOW  TO  PLAY  GOLF 

on  the  action  of  the  arms  and  wrists  that 
the  right  hand,  which  is  essentially  and 
naturally  the  putting  hand,  is  apt  to  urge 
the  club  out  in  front  instead  of  bringing 
it  back  in  such  a  manner  that  it  comes  in 
a  trifle  towards  the  player.  Mr  Travis's 
grip  seems  to  keep  the  right  hand  just 
sufficiently  under  control,  and  deter  it 
from  pursuing  a  wayward  course.  It  may 
not  suit  all  golfers,  but  in  conception  it  is 
excellent. 

The  old  maxim,  "  Never  up,  never  in," 
is,  I  think,  as  valuable  as  ever.  It  is  very 
easy  to  be  too  bold  with  the  modern  ball ; 
but  the  man  who  is  lacking  in  courage 
does  not  often  win  on  the  green.  Nearly 
all  good  putters  hit  the  ball  with  the 
utmost  firmness.  Watch,  for  instance, 
Tom  Ball.  He  gives  the  ball  a  hearty 
(although  none  the  less  rhythmic)  clout, 
and  does  not  often  fail.  There  are  players 
who  like  to  cut  their  putts.  Jack  White 
is,  however,  the  only  consistently  good 
putter  I  know  who  invariably  adopts  this 


ON  THE  GREEN  165 

principle.  The  great  mass  of  evidence 
suggests  that  the  best  spin  is  that  im- 
parted by  the  pull,  which  is  produced  by 
turning  the  right  hand  over  in  a  very 
slight  degree  at  the  moment  of  impact. 
Willie  Park,  one  of  the  finest  putters  I 
have  ever  seen,  always  pulls ;  so  does 
Arnaud  Massy,  another  deadly  man  on 
the  green.  Personally,  I  try  to  hit  the 
ball  without  either  cut  or  pull. 

One  cannot  justifiably  be  dogmatic  where 
putting  is  concerned,  except  in  regard  to 
the  few  points  on  which  I  have  insisted. 
So  many  men,  so  many  methods — that  is 
the  whole  of  the  subject.  J.  H.  Taylor, 
who  is  a  most  accurate  putter  and  a  rare 
man  for  holing  the  ball  at  a  pinch,  seems 
to  me  to  have  improved  since  he  adopted 
his  own  particular  style  of  sticking  out  his 
left  elbow  so  that  it  points  almost  straight 
towards  the  hole  as  he  makes  the  address 
and  plays  the  stroke.  His  hands  are  well 
in  front  of  the  ball  all  the  while.  James 
Braid,  who  seldom  misses  anything  that  is 


166  HOW  TO  PLAY  GOLF 

holeable,  has  a  way  of  stopping  for  quite  a 
long  while  at  the  top  of  the  putting  swing. 
He  takes  the  club  back,  and  there  he 
pauses  for  an  appreciable  period,  as  though 
he  were  coolly  determining  not  to  be  guilty 
of  a  snatched  , shot.  And  the  better  he  is 
putting,  the  longer  he  waits  at  the  top  of 
his  swing.  Every  good  putter  possesses 
individualism. 

Personally,  I  do  not  believe  in  study- 
ing the  line  from  its  two  ends.  The  player 
who  examines  the  situation  first  from  the 
ball  and  then  from  the  hole  is  likely  to 
see  two  lines.  He  finds  himself  filled  with 
philosophic  fears  and  speculative  doubts. 
The  harvest  that  he  reaps  is  so  rich  that 
he  is  distracted  by  it.  He  borrows  a  bit 
from  one  line  and  a  bit  from  the  other, 
and  finishes  where  Fortune  and  a  baffling 
complexity  of  slopes  may  take  him.  As 
I  have  said  previously,  there  is  a  lot  of 
imagination  in  seeing  a  line.  In  fact,  it 
is  nearly  all  imagination.  If  we  take  our 
"nightcap"  in  the  form  of  ten  minutes' 


ON  THE  GREEN  167 

putting  in  the  dusk,  we  shall  hole  out  with 
ease.  We  shall  not  see  alarming  undulations, 
which,  the  more  we  study  them,  the  more 
they  seem  to  demand  infinitesimal  estima- 
tion. We  shall  simply  inspect  the  hole 
and  the  ball,  and  bring  them  close  together. 
I  sometimes  think  that  with  putts  of  a  yard 
or  four  feet,  it  would  be  best  if,  without 
more  than  a  cursory  look  at  the  line,  we 
were  to  walk  up  to  the  ball  and  un- 
affectedly knock  it  into  the  hole.  That 
is  a  counsel  of  perfection ;  it  is  just 
the  system  of  George  Duncan,  and  other 
wise  appreciators  of  the  difficulties  of  the 
short  putt. 

But  when  all  has  been  said,  the  fact 
remains  that  the  work  on  the  green  is 
governed  by  the  mood  of  the  player. 
Once  I  hit  upon  the  idea  of  trying  a  putter 
about  a  foot  long.  I  took  it  over  to  La 
Boulie  to  use  in  the  French  open  cham- 
pionship, and  did  very  well  with  it  for  two 
rounds.  So  far  as  I  can  recollect,  I  was 
leading  very  comfortably  at  the  end  of 


168  HOW  TO  PLAY  GOLF 

thirty-six  holes.  Early  in  the  third  round 
I  was  presented  with  a  putt  of  no  more 
than  six  inches.  My  right  hand  jumped ; 
I  went  about  two  feet  past  the  hole,  and 
my  partner,  who  was  a  Frenchman,  gave 
vent  to  a  very  deliberate  and  wholesomely 
English — "  Good  Heavens  !  "  I  finished 
that  round  putting  with  an  iron,  and  with 
a  good  deal  of  iron  in  my  soul. 

Putting  is  so  much  a  matter  of  con- 
fidence that  I  sometimes  think  that  the 
average  player  ought  to  be  better  at  it 
than  the  champion.  I  say  this  with  the 
knowledge  that  it  looks  remarkably  like 
an  excuse  in  pickle,  but  I  believe  that, 
when  a  man  has  a  reputation  to  defend, 
the  task  of  getting  the  ball  into  the  hole 
from  a  comparatively  short  distance  is 
more  difficult  than  anything  else  in  the 
game.  In  this  connection  I  remember 
an  incident  that  occurred  at  St  Andrews 
a  few  years  ago,  when  a  tournament  open 
to  amateurs  and  professionals  was  decided. 
In  the  semi-final,  Alexander  Herd  met  an 


ON  THE  GREEN  169 

amateur,  who  holed  putts  from  all  parts 
of  the  green.  The  amateur  generally  had 
the  worst  of  the  play  up  to  the  green  ; 
then  he  would  get  down  a  long  putt,  and 
leave  Herd  struggling  for  a  half.  The 
match  was  even  at  the  seventeenth  hole. 
At  the  eighteenth  Herd  won.  Then  he 
turned  on  his  pertinacious  rival.  "  Look 
here/'  he  said,  "  you  wouldn't  hole  the 
putts  you've  been  holing  to-day  if  you  had 
to  do  it  for  your  living/'  There  was  a  lot 
of  truth  in  that  remark.  Putting  ought 
to  be  easy  to  amateurs ;  it  is  necessarily 
much  more  difficult  to  professionals,  be- 
cause their  reputations  are  apt  to  depend 
upon  it.  Keep  your  head  still,  swing 
pendulum-fashion  with  the  arms  and 
wrists,  follow-through,  and  don't  look  up 
as  you  do  it.  These  hints — and  a  recogni- 
tion  of  the  presumed  fact  that  you  are 
going  to  hole  the  ball — are  the  guides  to 
happiness  on  the  green. 


CHAPTER  IX 
RECOVERING  FROM  DIFFICULTIES 

LET  us  be  bunkered.  For  a  very 
long  while  we  have  delayed  the  evil 
happening.  We  have  played  many  shots 
with  a  variety  of  clubs  ;  even  have  we 
putted.  We  may,  indeed,  have  arrived 
at  the  conclusion  that  the  task  of  tapping 
the  ball  into  the  hole  is  easy.  It  is  so 
occasionally.  If  we  happen  to  have 
developed  such  a  spirit  of  triumphal 
elation,  perhaps  it  is  time  that  we  began 
to  look  on  the  dark  side  of  things.  Self- 
reliance  is  good,  but  exultation  is  often 
fatal  to  the  person  engaged  in  a  golf  match. 
Paradise  may  descend  upon  him,  but  it 
has  a  way  of  flitting  without  notice.  It 
leaves  him  in  a  cold,  hard  world,  which  is 
all  the  more  trying  because  of  the  joy  of 
the  preceding  minutes — precious  minutes 


170 


RECOVERING  FROM  DIFFICULTIES  171 

to  the  golfer.  Let  him  remember  there- 
fore, that  there  is  always  the  possibility 
of  his  having  to  approach  a  shot  with 
chastened  feelings.  At  the  most  un- 
expected period,  the  cold,  hard  world 
may  claim  him  as  its  own ;  that  little 
world  with  steep  sides  and  a  base  of  sand, 
or — worse  still — miserable  clay. 

When  we  make  our  way  into  a  bunker 
in  order  to  extract  our  errant  ball  from 
its  clutches,  we  can  possess  no  more  suit- 
able spirit  that  that  of  dignified  chasten- 
ment.  Personally,  I  have  long  since 
come  to  the  conclusion  that  it  is  unwise 
to  entertain  any  notion  about  performing 
heroics  in  hazards.  The  best  thing  to  do 
is  to  look  for  the  easiest  way  out,  and  take 
the  line  of  least  resistance.  There  are, 
naturally,  situations  in  which  we  must 
endeavour  to  accomplish  an  almost  super- 
human feat,  as,  for  instance,  when  the 
opposition  is  twelve  inches  from  the  hole 
in  the  same  number  of  shots  that  we  have 
expended  in  making  the  acquaintance  of 


172  HOW  TO  PLAY  GOLF 

the  bunker ;  but  in  ordinary  circum- 
stances there  is  no  scheme  more  profitable 
— or  perhaps  I  should  say  less  unprofitable 
— than  that  of  searching  for  the  simplest 
means  of  escape  and  trusting  to  the  saving 
of  a  stroke  in  the  short  game  in  order  to 
avert  the  loss  of  the  hole.  And  the  more 
moderate  the  player,  the  more  strongly 
is  this  policy  to  be  recommended.  I 
really  believe  that  many  a  long-handicap 
man  regularly  tries  to  accomplish  greater 
deeds  with  a  niblick  and  a  half-buried 
ball  than  any  first-class  golfer  would  dream 
of  attempting.  My  advice  to  the  bunkered 
player  is — "  Don't  be  greedy  ;  be  content 
to  get  out." 

I  need  scarcely  say  that  these  remarks 
are  based  on  the  assumption  that  we  are 
about  to  play  a  real  bunker  shot.  The 
ball  is  nestling  down  in  the  sand,  or  other 
yielding  substance,  in  such  a  way  that  we 
cannot  see  the  bottom  of  it.  When 
Providence  presents  us  with  a  good  lie 
in  a  bunker  ;  when  the  ball  is  teed-up,  or, 


RECOVERING  FROM  DIFFICULTIES  173 

at  any  rate,  poised  with  some  degree  of 
lofty  bearing,  then  we  can  pick  it  up 
cleanly  with  the  club  that  seems  most 
suited  to  the  occasion,  having  regard  to 
the  nearness  of  the  face  of  the  hazard, 
and  try  for  distance.  As  I  will  explain 
in  a  subsequent  chapter,  professionals 
generally  play  the  push-shot  in  such  cir- 
cumstances. For  the  present,  however, 
let  us  consider  that  we  are  endeavouring 
to  rescue  the  ball  from  an  exceedingly 
unpleasant  place. 

We  must  fix  our  eye  on  a  spot  an  inch 
and  a  half  or  two  inches  behind  the  ball, 
and  determine  to  delve  right  into  the 
bunker — as  far  into  it  as  we  can  penetrate 
— with  a  forcible  blow  of  the  niblick.  We 
shall  need  a  full  swing  for  the  purpose. 
It  can  be  as  full  a  swing  as  for  the  drive, 
but  it  must  be  a  considerably  more  up- 
right one  because  we  want  to  dig  the  ball 
out  of  its  retreat.  There  should  be  no 
element  of  the  sweeping  action  about 
this  stroke.  The  player  should  turn  his 


174  HOW  TO  PLAY  GOLF 

body  well  towards  the  direction  in  which 
he  wants  to  go  (a  stance  a  little  more  open 
than  that  for  the  mashie  shot)  ;  take  the 
club  up  fairly  straight  to  the  top  of  the 
swing,  and  bring  it  down  vehemently  into 
the  sand  an  inch  and  a  half  or  two  inches 
behind  the  ball,  throwing  his  body  slightly 
forward  and  nearly  all  his  weight  on  to 
the  left  leg  at  the  moment  of  the  stab. 
He  need  not  worry  at  all  about  nicety  of 
touch — that  is,  when  he  is  really  badly 
bunkered.  The  club  should  not  come  into 
contact  with  the  ball  at  any  part  of  the 
stroke.  The  player  must  determine  to 
make  a  mighty  cleft  in  the  sand — or  what- 
ever the  substance  may  be — behind  the 
ball,  whereupon  the  latter  will  be  forced 
out  of  its  ensconced  position  and  often 
hurled  a  considerable  distance.  Do  not 
trouble  about  a  follow-through.  The 
effort  should  finish  with  the  club-head 
buried  in  the  bunker.  All  that  you  are 
trying  to  do  is  to  create  such  a  disturbance 
at  the  back  of  the  ball  as  will  cause  that 


I! 

I 


IIS 

S 
If! 


RECOVERING  FROM  DIFFICULTIES  175 

object  to  move  out  of  the  hazard,  and 
when  the  niblick  has  made  its  way  into 
the  selected  spot,  it  will  have  done  its 
work. 

The  less  distance  you  want  to  go,  the 
more  sand  you  take.  The  point  here 
made  hardly  needs  emphasizing.  You 
must  always  hit  hard  in  a  bunker  (that 
is  a  golden  rule),  and  it  is  obvious  that  the 
farther  you  dig  behind  the  ball,  the  less 
the  latter  object  will  be  influenced  by  the 
disturbance.  Sometimes  you  have  to 
excavate  as  though  you  were  starting  to 
make  a  grave  for  yourself.  I  must  con- 
fess that  on  a  strange  course  a  shot  in  a 
bunker  often  partakes  of  the  character  of 
a  speculation,  since  there  is  little  oppor- 
tunity of  telling  the  consistency  of  the 
foundation.  When  a  first-class  player 
takes  two  strokes  to  recover  from  a 
hazard,  it  is  generally  because  he  has  failed 
accurately  to  estimate  the  density  of  the 
substance.  He  has  aimed  too  far  behind 
the  ball.  Nobody  is  allowed  to  ground 


176  HOW  TO  PLAY  GOLF 

the  club,  or  in  any  way  test  the  nature  of 
the  base,  and  even  the  man  of  experience 
sometimes  forms  a  wrong  judgment.  It 
is  not  often  that  the  person  of  long  and 
varied  observation  misses  his  first  shot 
in  a  hazard  through  an  attempt  to  do 
too  much  with  a  half -buried  ball.  His 
fault  is  usually  the  modest  one  of  trying 
to  do  too  little.  My  own  watchword 
when  I  am  badly  bunkered  is  "  Modera- 
tion "  (of  ambition  as  well  as  language). 
It  pays  in  the  end. 

In  the  chapter  concerning  the  mashie, 
I  have  mentioned  the  danger  of  endeavour- 
ing to  lift  the  ball  into  the  air  on  the  face 
of  the  club.  The  same  warning  may  be 
proclaimed  in  regard  to  bunker  shots. 
Far  better  is  it  to  dig  down  behind  the 
object  with  all  your  might,  than  to  try 
to  push  the  niblick  under  the  ball  and 
lift  it  up  with  the  club.  The  sand — or 
even  harder  stuff — if  agitated  in  the  right 
place,  and  with  plenty  of  power,  will  nearly 
always  release  its  victim.  When  the  ball 


I! 
it 


s  r-  .5 

^  5  a 


RECOVERING  FROM  DIFFICULTIES  177 

is  close  to  the  face  of  the  hazard,  it  is 
often  possible  to  play  a  cut  shot  in  just 
the  same  way  as  with  the  mashie.  The 
lie  for  this  purpose  must  be  a  good  one, 
but  granted  such  a  favour,  the  shot  is  well 
worth  trying  by  the  golfer  of  some  accom- 
plishment. Frequently  it  enables  him  to 
reach  the  green  without  a  further  expendi- 
ture of  strokes.  Naturally,  a  line  to  the 
left  must  be  taken  (in  such  circumstances 
he  will  generally  have  to  escape  sideways 
whether  he  decide  to  try  the  cut  or  simply 
perform  the  stab),  and  there  must  be,  as 
with  the  mashie,  a  distinct  attempt  to 
draw  the  club  across  the  ball  after  an 
upward  swing  in  which  the  arms  have 
pushed  the  implement  slightly  away  from 
the  body.  This,  however,  is  only  a  stroke 
for  a  peculiar  situation — a  good  lie  near 
the  face  of  the  bunker  guarding  the  green. 
In  the  ordinary  way  the  game  is  to  bury 
the  niblick  forcefully  behind  the  ball.  Do 
not  be  afraid  of  burying  it  too  deep ;  you 
cannot  go  too  far  into  the  sand.  It  is 


12 


178  HOW  TO  PLAY  GOLF 

often  possible  to   obtain  in  this  manner 
a  shot  of  very  useful  length. 

Even  in  clay,  as,  for  instance,  in  dry 
ditches,  the  tactics  here  described  can  be 
practised;  although  as  clay  is  usually 
fairly  dense  and  resistive,  it  is  necessary 
in  such  circumstances  to  aim  only  a  little 
way  behind  the  ball,  say,  from  half  an 
inch  to  an  inch.  If  you  try  to  take  two 
or  three  inches  of  this  tenacious  earth, 
you  may  get  it  all  right  on  the  face  of  the 
implement,  but  without  urging  the  ball 
clear  of  the  hazard.  Still,  unless  you  feel 
that  the  opportunity  is  excellent  for 
making  a  cleanly-hit  shot,  the  thing  to  do 
is  to  dig.  I  have  very  seldom  seen  soil 
so  hard  that  it  cannot  be  excavated, 
although  sometimes  a  great  amount  of 
vigour  is  necessary.  I  shall  never  forget 
a  wonderful  shot  which  Joshua  Taylor 
played  in  a  distinctly  clayey  ditch  at 
Clacton-on-Sea.  He  must  have  buried 
the  head  of  his  niblick  nearly  a  foot  below 
the  surface,  but  the  ball  came  out  all 


RECOVERING  FROM  DIFFICULTIES  179 

right.     Indeed,  if  I  remember  aright,  he 
laid  it  dead. 

Sometimes  on  courses  of  more  or  less 
ancient  architecture,  the  ball  is  found 
tucked  up  against  the  back  of  a  bunker. 
On  modern  courses  such  a  situation  is 
scarcely  ever  presented,  because  the 
twentieth  -  century  method  of  making 
bunkers  is  to  go  down  almost  straight  for 
several  feet  in  forming  the  back  of  the 
hazard.  The  whole  of  the  bunker  is 
below  the  surface  of  the  ground,  and  its 
depth  is  much  the  same  at  all  parts.  This 
is  unquestionably  the  best  principle,  in- 
asmuch as  a  ball  which  just  trickles  into 
the  hazard  slides  down  the  precipitous 
back  wall  and  runs  sufficiently  far  forward 
to  give  its  proprietor  a  chance  of  getting 
at  it  with  a  club.  It  is  one  of  the  ten- 
dencies of  the  day,  this  inclination  to  use 
the  underground  regions;  we  go  down  a 
lift  into  the  bowels  of  the  earth  in  order 
to  travel  in  a  tube,  and  we  find  our  up- 
to-date  golfing  trouble  below  the  surface. 


i8o  HOW  TO  PLAY  GOLF 

The  old  type  of  bunker  began  almost 
level  with  the  ground  ;  and  it  was  com- 
pleted by  the  erection  of  a  bank  on  the 
far  side.  There  are  thousands  of  these 
bunkers  still  in  existence,  and  when  the 
ball  just  trickles  into  one  of  them  so  that 
it  lies  close  up  against  the  shallow  back 
wall,  the  position  is  absurdly  unhappy. 
Sometimes  it  is  necessary  to  cut  right 
through  the  several  inches  of  turf  in  order 
to  execute  the  stab  shot.  It  is  occasion- 
ally the  only  alternative  to  playing  out 
sideways.  And  none  of  us  like  to  pursue 
our  golf  as  the  crab  walks  or  the  donkey 
goes  up  a  hill ;  it  seems  so  utterly  un- 
heroic  to  tack  off  the  appointed  line. 
Still,  I  would  not  discourage  the  moderate 
golfer  from  adopting  the  safer  course  of 
poking  his  way  out  to  either  flank  when 
he  finds  himself  hemmed  in  at  the  back. 
His  dominant  determination  ought  to  be 
to  recover  in  one  stroke.  If  he  can  get 
a  long  way  out,  well  and  good ;  if  the 
situation  is  at  all  involved,  let  him  be 


RECOVERING  FROM  DIFFICULTIES  181 

content  to  struggle  clear  of  it  by  a  matter 
of  a  few  yards,  and  offer  thanks  for  such 
a  small  mercy,  provided  always  that  it 
is  procurable  at  a  cost  of  no  more  than 
one  stroke.  It  is  a  foible  of  the  average 
golfer  that,  when  he  has  taken  six  at  a 
simple  hole  in  a  medal  competition,  a 
bunkered  shot  at  the  next  hole  often  ruins 
his  card  beyond  all  chance  of  redemption. 
The  reason  is  simply  that  he  tries  to  do 
something  wonderful  in  the  hazard  so  as 
not  to  be  debited  with  another  six.  The 
reward  often  comes  as  a  shock  ;  he  gets 
a  seven  instead  of  a  six. 

When  the  ground  is  very  hard,  it  is 
sometimes  a  blessing  in  disguise  to  be  in 
a  bunker  near  the  green.  If  you  know 
your  bunker  (know  that  it  is  not  of  a 
nature  that  wreaks  awful  vengeance  upon 
the  visitant),  and  are  on  good  terms  with 
your  niblick,  it  is  frequently  better  to  be 
in  the  sand  than  on  the  grass.  This 
remark  is  not  mere  philosophy ;  it  is 
good  advice.  After  a  drought,  it  may 


182  HOW  TO  PLAY  GOLF 

be  very  difficult  to  make  the  ball  stop 
on  the  green,  even  though  you  play  a 
good  approach  from  the  fairway.  If  you 
know  how  to  execute  a  bunker  shot,  you 
can  take  so  much  sand  as  to  put  an  in- 
evitable check  on  the  ball  and  make  it 
rise  so  sluggishly  as  to  stop  somewhere 
near  the  hole.  In  some  circumstances 
it  is  safer  when  playing  a  long  shot  up  to 
the  green  to  hug  the  wing  hazards,  and 
even  get  into  one  of  them,  than  to  send 
the  ball  straight  up  the  middle  and  risk 
a  lot  of  trouble  beyond  the  hole. 

In  this  connection,  the  peculiarities  of 
the  seventeenth — the  famous  "  Road  "  hole 
— at  St  Andrews  at  once  occur  to  the  mind. 
When  the  ground  is  hard,  the  ordinary 
game  is  to  put  the  second  shot  at  the  foot 
of  the  slope  in  front  of  the  green,  run  up, 
and  hope  for  a  four,  while  feeling  satisfied 
to  take  five.  But  if  you  want  to  adopt 
bold  tactics,  it  is  better  to  go  to  the  left 
in  spite  of  the  bunker  that  is  there  await- 
ing you,  than  to  play  straight  and  submit 


RECOVERING  FROM  DIFFICULTIES  183 

yourself  to  the  danger  of  finishing  on  the 
dreaded  road,  whence  in  all  probability 
you  will  simply  return  to  the  bunker. 
This  latter  hazard  is  an  excellent  one  in 
which  to  execute  a  niblick-burying  shot 
behind  the  ball.  There  is  a  good  chance 
of  getting  dead  from  it,  or  sufficiently  near 
the  hole  to  obtain  a  four.  They  say  that 
when  Braid  was  in  that  bunker  in  the  third 
round  of  the  open  championship  of  1910, 
the  Jubilee  championship  which  he  won  so 
brilliantly,  he  took  something  like  a  bucketful 
of  sand  in  order  to  play  a  shot  of  a  few  yards. 
People  who  were  present  declare  that  the 
very  green  trembled  when  his  club  crashed 
into  the  hazard.  A  good  golfer  knows 
exactly  what  to  do  in  a  bunker ;  nobody 
can  be  quite  sure  with  the  rubber-cored  ball 
of  the  best  means  of  playing  an  approach 
off  an  adamantine  surface  on  to  a  green 
of  similar  hardness.  One  effect  of  the 
introduction  of  the  resilient  ball  has  been 
to  make  bunkers  very  useful  as  places  of 
temporary  refuge  near  the  green. 


184  HOW  TO  PLAY  GOLF 

I  know  that  I  have  not  infrequently 
made  my  way  deliberately  into  them  in 
order  to  have  the  chance  of  laying  the  next 
shot  dead.  When  Braid  and  I  were  partners 
against  Duncan  and  Mayo  at  Walton 
Heath  a  few  years  ago,  I  was  not  afraid 
of  putting  my  confrere  into  the  bunker 
on  the  left  of  the  fifth  green.  I  did  so 
in  each  round.  I  knew  that  from  there 
he  was  sure  to  get  close  to  the  hole.  He 
did  not  fail.  We  won  it  each  time.  We 
are  not  all  so  strong  as  Braid,  who  can 
recover  from  anything ;  but,  under  cer- 
tain conditions,  there  is  something  to 
be  gained  by  considering  whether  the 
"  trouble,"  as  it  is  called,  can  be  used 
to  advantage.  I  remember  another  four- 
some decided  on  a  course  of  indifferent 
quality,  in  which  my  partner  and  I  decided 
to  play  into  the  rough  at  certain  holes. 
The  lies  were  better  there  than  on  the 
clayey,  rain-sodden  fairway.  We  gained 
an  easy  victory,  but  some  of  the  papers 
remarked  on  the  following  day  that  our 


RECOVERING  FROM  DIFFICULTIES  185 

golf  had  not  been  very  good  because  we 
had  been  off  the  line  so  often  !  There 
was  method  in  our  crookedness. 

Now  that  the  "  humps  and  hollows " 
have  become  so  popular  (or,  at  least,  as 
popular  as  places  of  retribution  can  hope 
to  be),  a  bunker  shot  is  sometimes  pre- 
sented where  no  bunker  exists.  When 
your  ball  is  at  the  foot  of  a  high  mound 
which  is  in  the  direct  line  to  the  hole,  and 
right  under  your  nose  in  such  a  way  as 
to  prevent  anything  in  the  nature  of  a 
following-through  stroke,  the  only  means 
to  the  end  is  to  stab  behind  the  ball  in 
just  the  same  manner  as  in  sand,  and 
make  the  soil  produce  the  desired  lofting 
effect.  This,  however,  can  only  be  done 
when  the  grass  is  short.  The  distance 
which  you  aim  behind  the  ball  must  be 
governed  by  the  nature  of  the  turf ;  in 
any  case,  it  will  not  be  so  great  as  in  sand. 
An  inch  will  generally  suit  the  occasion ; 
the  point  to  remember  is  to  dig  the  niblick 
into  the  ground,  as  you  would  do  in  sand, 


i86  HOW  TO  PLAY  GOLF 

and  bury  it.  Otherwise  you  will  not 
often  get  the  ball  over  the  mound  owing 
to  the  unavoidable  arrestation  of  the  swing. 
A  sequential  point  to  recollect  is  to  tread 
down  the  turf  which  you  have  uplifted. 
Where  you  have  gone  others  may  follow. 
In  playing  this  stab  shot,  it  is  a  great 
help  to  throw  the  body  slightly  forward 
and  nearly  all  the  weight  on  to  the  left 
leg  as  the  club  burrows  its  way  forcibly 
into  the  earth.  In  long  grass  it  is 
impossible  to  bury  the  niblick.  This 
particular  tool  will  do  a  lot  of  things,  and 
maintain  its  integrity  in  times  of  rough 
treatment,  which  even  a  sledge-hammer 
might  resent ;  but  it  will  not  cut  straight 
down  into  very  long  grass  and  at  the  same 
time  perform  the  important  operation  of 
making  the  ball  rise.  When  the  grass  is 
rank  and  an  earthen  bank  confronts  the 
player  (a  situation  that  often  presents  itself 
in  what  are  sometimes  called  grass  bunkers) 
tactics  different  from  those  employed  in 
an  ordinary  bunker  are  demanded.  The 


RECOVERING  FROM  DIFFICULTIES  187 

only  feasible  plan  is  to  aim  several  inches 
behind  the  ball ;  cut  the  grass  at  the 
roots  with  a  following- through  stroke ;  and 
throw  the  body  back  at  the  instant  of 
impact  with  nearly  all  the  weight  on  to 
the  right  leg.  In  grass  that  is  positively 
formidable  in  length  and  thickness,  it  is 
always  necessary  to  aim  well  behind  the 
ball  (sometimes  as  much  as  four  or  five 
inches),  so  as  to  slice  off  the  herbage  at 
the  roots  before  reaching  the  ball.  There 
are  occasions  when  the  grass  comes  up  in 
bunches,  and  flies  round  your  head  as 
though  you  were  being  crowned  queen 
(or  king)  of  the  May.  This,  however,  is 
the  way  to  recover.  If  you  are  merely 
in  very  long  grass  with  no  lofty  obstacle 
immediately  in  front,  naturally  you  will 
not  throw  your  body  back  as  the  club 
reaches  the  ball.  In  such  circumstances 
you  should  have  the  weight  equally 
divided.  It  is  still  important,  however, 
to  aim  some  little  way  behind  the  ball 
and  cut  right  along  the  roots  of  the  grass, 


i88  HOW  TO  PLAY  GOLF 

instead  of  coming  down  to  the  object  and 
trying  to  scoop  it  out  of  its  entanglement. 
The  stems  have  a  way  of  arranging  them- 
selves around  the  ball  as  though  deter- 
mined to  defend  it  till  the  last  gasp. 
They  must  be  cut  away  in  the  manner 
described.  In  gorse,  as  in  long  grass, 
it  is  necessary  to  aim  well  behind  the  ball, 
and  cut  through  the  bush.  It  is  hefty 
work  ;  I  wish  you  little  of  it. 

These,  then,  are  the  general  principles 
of  the  business  of  recovering  from  diffi- 
culties. I  do  not  desire  to  urge  that  no 
other  schemes  are  correct.  There  are  a 
hundred  and  one  different  positions  that 
threaten  disaster,  and  a  hundred  and  one 
different  ways  of  escaping.  Much  must  be 
left  to  the  judgment  of  the  player,  and  to 
his  knowledge  of  his  own  powers.  The  shots 
that  I  have  described  are  applicable  to 
those  distressing  situations  of  the  every- 
day type.  They  are  sufficient ;  let  us 
end  this  chapter  of  accidents  and  proceed 
to  happier  themes. 


CHAPTER  X 
THE  "PUSH"  SHOT 

THERE  comes  a  period  when  our 
golf  shows  unmistakable  evidence  of 
improvement ;  a  soul-satisfying  time  when 
we  entertain  no  serious  doubt  as  to  our 
ability  to  execute  a  plain  shot  in  the 
correct  way.  The  hardest  part  of  the 
golfer's  life  is  that  stage  in  his  novitiate 
when  his  only  faith  is  in  his  capacity  for 
foozling.  He  swings  beautifully  without 
the  ball,  but  directly  that  object  is  placed 
in  front  of  him,  the  difficulties  of  hitting 
it  properly  rush  into  his  mind  like  a  raging 
torrent.  For  the  first  second  he  wonders 
whether  he  will  succeed.  Before  he  has 
finished  addressing  the  ball,  his  senti- 
ments present  a  mixture  of  resignation 
and  desperate  hope.  That  is  the  period 
when  instruction  by  voice  has  an  excellent 


189 


igo  HOW  TO  PLAY  GOLF 

moral  effect.  The  professional  may  do 
nothing  more  than  say  repeatedly  :— 
"  You'll  hit  it  all  right  if  you  do  what  I 
tell  you  "  ;  but  those  words  seem  to  breed 
a  lot  of  confidence  in  the  doubter.  I 
must  confess,  however,  that  the  instructor 
occasionally  has  to  exercise  a  lot  of  restraint 
in  order  to  produce  the  desired  results. 
I  once  knew  a  man  who  constantly  needed 
this  vocal  encouragement,  and  who  in- 
variably raised  a  side-issue  by  saying  in 
response  : — "  Yes  ;  but  if  I  hit  it,  I'm  sure 
to  laugh  so  much  that  I  shan't  be  able  to 
do  it  again."  That  was  very  trying.  It 
is  easy  enough  to  tell  a  person  not  to 
move  his  head,  but  to  tell  him  not  to  laugh 
for  joy  at  his  triumphs  seems  almost  in- 
human. The  worst  of  it  was  that  he  had 
good  ground  for  fear  as  to  the  danger  of 
his  risible  tendencies.  Whenever  he  made 
a  good  shot,  he  was  so  elated,  and  he  laughed 
so  gaily  about  it,  that  it  was  out  of  the 
question  to  expect  him  to  do  anything 
equally  satisfactory  for  quite  a  long  while. 


THE  "  PUSH  "  SHOT  191 

Sooner  or  later,  however,  the  earnest 
golfer  attains  that  degree  of  proficiency 
when  he  knows  that  the  accomplishment 
of  an  ordinary  stroke  is  within  his  power. 
His  mistrust  in  his  own  abilities  (that 
greatest  and  most  natural  handicap  of 
the  novice)  has  disappeared.  Now  is  the 
time  for  him  to  start  learning  what  is,  I 
think,  the  most  valuable  shot  in  golf.  It 
is  called  the  push-shot. 

I  suppose  it  is  true  that  the  standard 
of  amateur  golf  has  fallen  below  that  of 
professional  golf.  Mr  H.  H.  Hilton  very 
nearly  beat  all  of  us  in  the  open  champion- 
ship at  Sandwich  in  1911,  and  I  have 
poignant  recollections  of  waiting  for  an 
hour  round  the  home  green  while  he  was 
engaged  in  an  effort  which  was  very 
perturbing  to  me  in  particular;  but,  save 
for  that  performance  by  a  truly  great 
player,  the  data  provided  during  recent 
years  support  the  general  impression  that 
the  leading  professionals  have  maintained 
a  higher  degree  of  skill  than  the  leading 


192  HOW  TO  PLAY  GOLF 

amateurs.  There  have  been  many  dis- 
cussions as  to  the  reason  for  this  state  of 
affairs.  I  venture  to  say,  that  the  ex- 
planation is  to  be  found  almost  exclusively 
in  the  fact  that  the  professionals  make 
the  most  of  the  push-shot.  That  is  the 
great  secret  of  their  success,  and  if 
amateurs  would  practise  that  stroke  more 
assiduously,  I  believe  that  the  disparity 
between  the  two  sections  of  the  golfing 
community  would  be  greatly  lessened. 
Some  amateurs  do  play  the  push-shot, 
and  play  it  well.  But  they  are  a  small 
company ;  the  great  majority  do  not 
appreciate  either  its  scientific  beauties  or 
its  practical  possibilities.  The  profes- 
sionals resort  to  it  in  many  situations, 
and  find  it  invaluable.  They  even  play 
it  with  a  niblick  in  bunkers,  when  the  ball 
is  lying  cleanly.  Sometimes  you  will  hear 
a  spectator  remark  when  following  a 
couple  of  professionals  : — "  I  can't  imagine 
how  these  fellows  manage  to  get  so  far 
out  of  bunkers."  The  push-shot  is  the 


THE  "  PUSH  "  SHOT  193 

solution  to  the  mystery.  Its  feature  on 
all  occasions  when  it  is  properly  executed 
is  that  it  makes  the  ball  rise  sharply,  and 
yet  prevents  it  from  flying  high,  and  so 
losing  distance.  It  is  clear  that  we  could 
not  hope  for  a  ball  played  out  of  a  bunker 
to  behave  in  a  manner  better  than  that 
indicated.  We  want  it  to  ascend  quickly, 
so  as  to  escape  the  face  of  the  hazard  ;  we 
also  want  it  to  go  a  long  way.  The  push- 
shot  compels  it  to  do  these  two  things. 
The  back-spin  is  the  influence  that  works 
for  so  much  good.  For  a  moment  after 
the  impact,  that  spin  is  so  powerful  that 
the  ball,  revolving  rapidly  in  the  direc- 
tion opposite  to  that  in  which  it  is  travel- 
ling, necessarily  goes  up  sharply  into  the 
air.  It  is  trying  to  whirl  back,  as  it  were, 
to  the  player ;  but  the  power  of  the  for- 
ward movement  is  too  much  for  it.  The 
conflict  of  the  two  forces  naturally  causes 
it  to  rise  sharply.  Almost  immediately, 
however,  they  come  to  an  amicable  under- 
standing. The  ball,  having  been  struck 


i94  HOW  TO  PLAY  GOLF 

cleanly  with  anything  up  to  a  three- 
quarter  swing,  insists  upon  going  forward. 
It  cannot  be  denied.  But  the  velocity  of 
the  impact  having  been  spent,  the  back- 
spin  makes  the  shot  "flatten  out"  so  to 
speak.  So,  again,  we  have  the  two  in- 
fluences operating  in  unison  for  the  good 
of  the  player.  The  ball  must  necessarily 
go  in  the  direction  in  which  it  has  been  hit ; 
but  the  spin  keeps  it  low  and,  moreover, 
maintains  its  flight  in  one  plane  for  an 
astonishingly  long  time.  On  and  on  it 
goes  until  its  power  is  spent ;  then  it  drops 
as  sharply  as  it  has  risen,  and  runs  very  few 
yards.  It  is  wonderful  how  far  one  can  get 
out  of  a  bunker  by  playing  this  shot  with 
a  niblick.  As  I  have  previously  mentioned, 
the  ball  must  be  lying  cleanly ;  if  it  be 
even  slightly  buried,  the  stroke  which  is 
the  subject  of  this  chapter  cannot  be 
considered  within  the  range  of  practical 
politics.  However,  we  are  not  supposed 
to  make  the  acquaintance  of  bunkers. 
Human  nature  being  frail,  we  do  come 


THE  "  PUSH  "  SHOT  195 

into  contact  with  them  at  intervals,  so 
that  it  is  necessary  to  consider  the  best 
way  of  emerging  triumphantly  from  their 
grasp;  but  it  is  more  comforting  when 
discussing  the  push-shot,  to  suppose  that 
we  are  always  on  the  fairway.  By  a 
skilful  golfer  who  practises  it  assiduously, 
it  can  be  executed  successfully  and  pro- 
fitably with  any  club.  James  Braid  often 
plays  it  from  the  tee  with  his  driver. 
Not  long  ago  I  had  thirty-six  holes  with 
him  at  Walton  Heath.  Nothing  in  my 
golfing  life  has  impressed  me  more  than 
the  way  in  which  Braid  executed  the 
push-shot  with  all  kinds  of  clubs  on  that 
occasion.  I  honestly  do  not  think  that 
he  has  any  equal  at  it.  It  is  my  own 
favourite  stroke  (in  the  days  of  the  gutta- 
percha  ball  I  simply  worshipped  it,  and 
made  myself,  I  think,  pretty  good  at  it), 
but  I  fear  I  do  not  often  play  it  now 
as  I  played  it  in  former  days.  It  is  the 
master  stroke  in  the  game,  and  is  worthy 
the  earnest  study  of  every  golfer  who  is 


ig6  HOW  TO  PLAY  GOLF 

approaching  the  region  of  scratch  form. 
It  demands  great  accuracy  and  a  perfect 
synchronization  of  several  unusual  move- 
ments, but  it  is  within  the  reach  of  any- 
body who  has  confidence  in  his  ability  to 
perform  a  shot  properly.  It  comes  with 
diligent  practice.  The  person  of  medium 
handicap  may  find  that  he  possesses 
the  knack  of  doing  it.  If  not,  I  would 
recommend  him  to  perfect  himself  at  the 
plain  strokes  before  tackling  the  more 
intricate  ones. 

I  have  emphasized  the  fact  that  the 
push-shot  can  be  accomplished  with  any 
club  in  the  bag,  inasmuch  as  there  seems 
to  be  a  common  impression  that  it  should 
never  be  attempted  with  anything  but  a 
cleek  or  an  iron.  Often  one  reads  or 
hears  that  So-and-so  is  very  skilful  at  the 
push-shot  with  the  cleek.  Assuming  the 
criticism  to  be  sound,  the  chances  are  that 
the  afore-mentioned  So-and-so  is  equally 
clever  at  the  push-shot  with  the  iron  or 
mashie,  or  niblick.  Certainly  the  pro- 


THE  "  PUSH  "  SHOT  197 

f essionals  play  it  with  all  their  iron  clubs ; 
and  Braid,  as  I  have  already  said,  resorts 
to  it  with  his  driver  when  he  wants  to 
prevent  his  tee  shot  from  running  far. 
A  complete  mastery  over  the  stroke  raises 
the  golfer  from  the  stage  of  ordinary 
excellence  to  the  plane  in  which  he  is 
distinguished  ;  that  is  why  it  is  so  well 
worth  studying. 

While  it  is  a  shot  for  any  club,  the  cleek 
is  perhaps  the  best  implement  with  which 
to  begin  practising  it.  Before  proceeding 
to  describe  how  it  is  done,  let  me  explain 
in  a  few  words  the  idea  of  the  stroke. 
What  happens  (at  least,  so  I  feel  convinced, 
although  nobody  sees  it  happen)  is  that 
the  ball  is  made  to  spin  slightly  up  the 
face  of  the  club  at  the  instant  of  impact. 
The  golfer  has  no  need  to  worry  about 
producing  this  effect;  it  will  come  if  he 
accomplish  the  shot  properly.  That  is  the 
essence  of  the  shot ;  it  produces  the  back- 
spin  while  the  power  of  the  blow  naturally 
sends  the  ball  forward.  Now  as  to  the 


ig8  HOW  TO  PLAY  GOLF 

way  to  obtain  the  effect ;  a  way  that 
must  be  precise,  although  it  is  not  nearly 
so  difficult  a  problem  as  it  may  look  on 
paper.  The  swing  must  be  distinctly 
more  upright  than  for  the  ordinary  cleek 
shot.  The  club  must  go  up  straight er 
than  for  any  other  stroke  in  the  game, 
and,  that  being  so,  nothing  more  than  a 
three-quarter  swing  should  be  permitted. 
The  uprightness  of  the  swing  will  demand 
a  closer  stance  than  for  the  ordinary 
cleek  shot.  The  player  should  be  several 
inches  nearer  to  the  ball  because,  instead 
of  swinging  the  club  round  to  it  with  a 
purely  propelling  action,  he  is  going  to 
endeavour  to  come  down  on  to  the  side 
of  the  ball,  if  I  may  so  explain  it.  This 
sounds,  I  know,  only  about  one  degree 
removed  from  an  incentive  to  topping. 
It  is  likely  that  the  golfer  will  go  through 
a  period  of  that  painful  purgatory  in  his 
early  efforts  to  execute  the  shot,  but  it 
will  be  solely  attributable  to  his  failure 
to  use  his  body  and  wrists  in  the  correct 


THE  "  PUSH  "  SHOT  199 

way  at  the  time  of  impact.  It  is  quite 
clear  that  the  simple  propelling  influence 
will  not  produce  the  essential  back-spin. 
The  face  of  the  club  must  come  down 
broadside  on  to  the  ball  so  as  to  make 
the  latter  run  up  the  face  of  the  imple- 
ment, thus  imparting  the  spin  while  the 
forward  movement  is  in  progress. 

We  left  ourselves  standing  closer  to  the 
ball  than  for  the  ordinary  cleek.  The  stance, 
too,  should  be  distinctly  more  forward. 
In  no  circumstances  should  the  hands  be 
behind  the  ball  during  the  address ;  in- 
deed, they  must  be  an  inch  or  two  in 
front  of  it.  Moreover,  the  eyes  must  be 
focussed,  not  on  the  turf  immediately 
behind  the  object,  but  on  that  extremity 
of  the  ball  itself  which  is  farthest  from  the 
hole.  During  the  address,  our  range  of 
vision,  so  far  as  we  are  conscious  of  it, 
should  end  half-way  down  the  ball — on 
the  pimple  that  is  protruding  farthest 
away  from  the  hole  (if  we  are  using  a  ball 
of  pimple  marking).  When  we  play  an 


200  HOW  TO  PLAY  GOLF 

ordinary  cleek  shot,  we  graze  the  turf 
several  inches  behind  the  ball  so  as  to 
make  the  loft  of  the  club  do  its  work 
immediately.  With  the  push-shot,  we 
obtain  the  loft  in  a  different  way.  In  an 
infinitesimal  period  something  happens 
which  produces  back -spin  before  the 
action  of  raising  the  ball  has  time  to 
take  effect.  What  we  want  to  do  is  to 
bring  the  instrument  down  so  that  the 
hindmost  part  of  the  ball  is  struck  at  a 
point  of  the  club's  face  which  is  rather 
nearer  to  the  sole  than  the  top.  In  a  way, 
then,  we  want  to  come  down  half  on  top 
of  the  ball.  We  have  seen  that  our  hands 
are  in  front  of  it,  so  that  when  the  contact 
is  made  at  the  rearmost  part  of  the 
ball  (not  under  it),  more  than  half  of 
the  club  as  between  the  sole  and  the 
top  is  tilted,  so  to  speak,  over  the  ball. 
I  need  scarcely  say  that  this  position  is 
of  the  shortest  instant's  duration.  We  are 
not  going  to  stand  and  reflect  on  it ; 
we  have  no  time  even  to  catch  a  glimpse 


THE  "  PUSH  "  SHOT  201 

of  it.  Nevertheless,  the  securing  of  it 
is  the  first  essential  of  the  shot  ;  this  is 
a  fact  upon  which  I  imagine  all  good 
exponents  of  the  push  stroke  have  satisfied 
themselves. 

Now  as  to  the  simultaneous  yet  rhyth- 
mic movements  which  complete  the  shot. 
At  the  moment  of  impact  (right  at  that 
instant ;  not  the  smallest  fraction  of  a 
second  earlier  or  later)  the  player  should 
straighten  the  elbows,  stiffen  the  wrists, 
and  let  the  body  go  forward  a  few  inches 
with  the  club.  The  quick  action  of  the 
elbows  and  wrists  will  push  the  face  of 
the  club  under  the  ball  as  both  go  forward, 
and  the  body  moving  slightly  in  the  same 
direction  will  assist  in  the  project.  The 
ground  will  be  grazed  the  smallest  dis- 
tance imaginable  in  front  of  the  place 
where  the  ball  was  reposing.  The  follow- 
through  should  not  be  arrested  ;  indeed, 
it  should  be  encouraged,  because  the 
wrists  and  elbows  must  relax  to  the  normal 
the  instant  they  have  executed  the  push ; 


202  HOW  TO  PLAY  GOLF 

but,  in  the  ordinary  way,  the  follow-through 
will  not  be  so  full  as  in  ordinary  shots. 

I  need  scarcely  say  that  the  secret  of 
success  is  to  make  the  various  movements 
synchronize  to  perfection.  The  arms 
must  straighten,  the  wrists  must  tighten, 
and  the  body  must  move  forward  at  the 
exact  time  when  the  club  meets  the  ball. 
The  effect  will  be  readily  perceived.  The 
club-face  will  be  turned  under  the  ball, 
while  picking  it  up  cleanly.  The  two  will 
be  in  contact  for  a  period  not  long  enough 
to  be  noticed,  but  sufficiently  appreciable 
for  the  ball  to  run  up  the  face  of  the 
implement  as  it  is  being  urged  forward. 
Thus  will  be  produced  the  back-spin.  A 
tight  grip  is  necessary,  and  I  may  perhaps 
repeat  the  warning  that  directly  the  impact 
is  complete  the  elbows  and  wrists  should 
relax  so  as  to  facilitate  the  follow-through. 
They  will  have  done  their  work. 

This  description  may  make  the  shot 
appear  like  a  piece  of  jugglery,  but  it  is 
a  faithful  explanation  of  the  stroke  as  I 


if 

5:  3 

111 


1 


THE  "  PUSH  "  SHOT  203 

play  it  myself,  and  as  I  have  seen  others 
play  it.  From  time  to  time  I  have 
observed  in  responsible  papers  articles  deal- 
ing with  the  push-shot,  and  giving  wrong 
impressions  of  its  character.  Thus  I  have 
read  on  more  than  one  occasion  that 
rudimentary  mechanics  prove  beyond  all 
question  that,  in  order  to  raise  a  ball  into 
the  air  and  obtain  an  accurate  and  ade- 
quate flight,  it  is  necessary  for  the  club  to 
make  impact  below  the  centre  of  the  ball. 
I  do  not  profess  to  know  much  about  the 
science  of  mechanics,  but  I  am  sure  that 
I  know  how  the  push-shot  is  played.  If, 
at  the  outset,  you  were  to  strike  the  ball 
below  the  centre,  you  would  not  impart 
much  back-spin  to  it.  You  might  obtain 
a  little,  but  the  effort  would  be  hardly 
distinguishable  from  an  ordinary  lofting 
shot.  What  you  have  to  do  is  to  bring 
the  face  of  the  club  down  to  the  ball  at 
the  centre  of  its  mass,  and  then,  by  that 
simultaneous  stiffening  of  the  elbows, 
tightening  of  the  wrists,  and  pushing 


204  HOW  TO  PLAY  GOLF 

forward  of  the  body,  make  the  face  of  the 
implement  run  almost  half-way  round  the 
ball.  It  has  been  said  that  it  is  impossible 
for  me  or  anybody  else  to  observe  what 
happens  at  the  instant  when  the  club  and 
the  ball  come  into  contact.  I  am  free  to 
confess  that  it  is  impossible  to  see  the 
club  hit  the  ball.  Let  me,  however,  dis- 
cuss the  matter  from  another  standpoint. 
A  good  player  always  knows  what  he  is 
trying  to  do  no  matter  what  club  he  has 
in  his  hands.  If  he  repeatedly  hits  the 
shots  just  as  he  tries  to  hit  them,  he  knows 
that  he  is  using  the  club  and  striking  the 
ball  in  just  the  manner  that  he  has  con- 
ceived for  the  occasion.  Otherwise  we 
should  have  to  arrive  at  the  conclusion 
that  all  his  satisfactory  strokes  were  flukes, 
because  he  had  endeavoured  to  accom- 
plish the  thing  in  a  certain  way  and  had 
obtained  the  desired  result  by  unwittingly 
doing  something  else.  That,  surely,  would 
be  absurd.  Consequently,  although  it  is 
true  that  I  do  not  see  the  club  hit  the 


THE  "  PUSH  "  SHOT  205 

ball,  I  know  that  the  push-shot  is  obtained 
in  the  manner  which  I  have  described.  I 
have  dealt  fully  with  the  subject,  and 
endeavoured  to  correct  wrong  impressions, 
because  I  feel  that  the  "  push  "  is  now  the 
master  shot  in  golf,  and  the  stroke  which 
all  good  amateurs  ought  to  practise  if  they 
take  to  heart  the  frequent  reproach  that 
the  standard  of  their  play  is  falling  below 
that  of  professional  golf. 


CHAPTER  XI 
GOLF  IN  A  WIND 

IT  is  a  great  advantage  to  have  learnt 
your  golf  (or  to  go  and  learn  it)  by  the 
sea.  Students  of  the  game's  history  will  not 
need  to  be  informed  that  nearly  all  the 
leading  players  secured  their  early  train- 
ing in  the  pastime  on  seaside  links,  or, 
at  any  rate,  at  high  and  exposed  places 
which  the  four  winds  of  heaven  had  claimed 
among  their  own  playgrounds.  The  best 
school  of  experience  is  a  school  in  which 
that  gentleman  who  is  known  as  old 
Boreas  tries  to  assert  authority.  Natur- 
ally, we  do  not  want  half  a  gale  to  prevail 
every  time  we  go  out  for  a  round  (indeed, 
humanity  is  so  frail  that,  if  it  had  any  say 
in  the  matter,  it  might  vote  for  the  com- 
plete suppression  of  atmosperic  disturb- 
ance in  the  region  of  golf  courses),  but  the 


206 


GOLF  IN  A  WIND  207 

fact  remains  that  repeated  subjection  to 
a  stiff  wind  helps  more  than  any  other 
influence  to  make  a  person  a  finished 
golfer.  Cricketers  and  footballers  may 
rise  quickly  to  fame  from  beginnings  made 
in  almost  any  circumstances — in  suburban 
parks,  on  patches  of  waste  ground  in  busy 
industrial  districts,  anywhere.  An  apti- 
tude for  golf  can  hardly  fail  to  make  itself 
manifest  at  some  time  or  other,  and 
blessed  is  he  who  possesses  it ;  but  twice 
blessed  is  he  who  has  the  opportunity  to 
develop  it  early  in  life  on  seaside  links. 
For  then  necessity  will  make  him  the 
father  of  invention.  There  is  generally 
some  degree  of  commotion  in  the  air  by  the 
sea,  and  it  has  to  be  circumvented.  Not 
always  is  it  that  a  plain,  straightforward 
shot  achieves  the  purpose.  Ingenuity 
is  stimulated ;  spin  has  sometimes  to  be 
imparted  to  the  ball  so  that  the  wind  may 
be  mastered.  Then  it  is  that  the  player 
learns  the  higher  science  of  golf ;  learns 
how  to  compel  the  ball  to  do  anything. 


208  HOW  TO  PLAY  GOLF 

When  he  takes  up  his  abode  inland,  he 
may  have  to  practise  several  new  shots 
(the  turf  for  one  thing  is  generally  quite 
different  from  that  to  which  he  has  been 
accustomed),  but  with  his  seaside  train- 
ing he  can  overcome  any  difficulty.  When 
a  strong  wind  arises,  as  it  does  at  times 
in  even  the  most  sheltered  of  places,  he  is 
unruffled  by  it,  while  the  life-long  habitue 
of  the  course  is  perhaps  buffeted  about  in 
every  direction.  When  even  in  the  absence 
of  wind,  the  need  presents  itself  of  doing 
something  unusual  so  as  to  make  the  ball 
curl  round  an  obstacle  and  reach  the 
chosen  spot,  the  player  from  the  nursery 
by  the  sea  is  usually  equal  to  the  occasion. 
The  main  principles  of  executing  the  pull 
or  slice  are  the  same,  no  matter  for  what 
purpose  the  shot  is  attempted.  If  you 
have  hooked  your  drive,  and  can  only 
reach  the  green  with  your  second  stroke 
by  means  of  a  sliced  shot  round  an 
obstruction,  the  method  of  securing  that 
slice  is  the  same  as  when  you  are  trying 


GOLF  IN  A  WIND  209 

to  juggle  with  the  wind  so  that  its  strength, 
combined  with  spin  which  you  have  im- 
parted to  the  ball,  may  result  in  the  latter 
starting  off  the  line  and  coming  back  to  it. 
Where  the  obstacle  is  concerned,  you 
probably  do  not  want  to  come  back  to 
the  line  ;  you  simply  require  a  slice  so  as 
to  atone  for  the  pull — or  vice  versa.  In 
the  other  case,  the  wind  alone  will  influ- 
ence the  course  of  your  ball,  and  the  latter 
will  have  been  sent  off  the  line,  so  that, 
with  the  help  of  the  elements  and  the  spin, 
it  shall  return  to  the  proper  track  without 
having  been  robbed  of  distance.  It 
follows,  then,  that  there  are  many  degrees 
of  slice  and  pull,  according  to  circum- 
stances. Only  experience  can  teach  the 
golfer  just  what  degree  is  required  for  each 
situation  that  presents  itself. 

It  is  wind  that  provokes  the  most  frequent 
demand  for  the  exercise  of  these  shots.  If 
you  find  yourself  confronted  by  a  source  of 
embarrassment  which  cannot  be  carried  (a 
spinney,  a  house,  or  something  like  that), 
14 


210  HOW  TO  PLAY  GOLF 

you  may  have  to  impart  a  quick  slice  or 
pull,  or  delay  the  effect  of  the  spin  so  that 
the  ball  travels  for  a  considerable  distance 
in  an  almost  straight  line  before  the  in- 
fluence of  the  communicated  whirl  comes 
into  operation.  The  player  is  naturally 
governed  in  these  matters  by  the  distance 
which  he  finds  himself  from  the  obstacle, 
but  the  fundamental  features  of  the 
methods  of  accomplishing  sliced  or  pulled 
shots  are  the  same  in  all  circumstances. 
If  the  golfer  knows  how  to  stand  and  how 
to  use  his  right  hand,  a  most  important 
hand  in  this  connection  for  a  particular 
degree  of  pull  or  slice,  diligent  practice 
ought  to  make  him  capable  of  attaining 
any  other  degree  which  he  may  require. 
The  ability  will  come  instinctively  once 
he  is  master  of  the  main  idea.  It  is  best 
to  learn  the  shots  in  a  wind,  because  then 
you  have  the  whole  world  into  which  to 
aim,  and,  what  is  more,  the  wind  assists 
in  producing  the  desired  effects.  You 
seem  to  feel  that  it  has  come  out  to  be 


GOLF  IN  A  WIND  211 

friendly  ;  that  it  is  going  to  act  in  a  posi- 
tively benign  way  towards  your  scientific 
efforts.  That  is  much  more  inspiring  than 
sallying  forth  on  a  calm  day  with  a  deter- 
mination to  execute  slices  or  pulls  round 
such  an  inert  institution  as  a  collection  of 
trees  or  a  building. 

These  are  all  strokes  for  players  of 
ability ;  the  beginner  may  well  regard 
them  as  distant  objects  of  his  ambition. 
Anybody,  however,  who  feels  tolerably 
certain  of  hitting  a  ball  cleanly  is  justified 
in  attempting  the  intentional  slice  or  pull. 
Indeed,  it  is  his  duty  to  do  so  ;  otherwise, 
he  is  paying  a  very  poor  compliment  to 
the  scope  of  golf.  Practical  acquaintance 
with  the  subject  will  teach  the  player  how 
many  yards  he  should  hit  the  ball  off  the 
straight  line  in  order  to  gain  his  end.  In 
fact,  he  needs  to  store  up  a  knowledge  of 
winds  which  would  be  a  credit  to  the 
skipper  of  a  sailing  vessel.  The  danger 
of  going  too  far  off  the  line  is  always 
worthy  of  recollection  ;  it  is  a  downright 


212  HOW  TO  PLAY  GOLF 

tragedy  when  the  intentional  slice  or  pull 
meets  with  the  fate  of  the  unintentional  one. 
I  have  come  to  the  conclusion  that, 
when  a  strong  wind  blows  from  right  to 
left,  that  is  to  say,  from  the  slice  side  of 
the  course  to  the  pull  side,  it  is  a  very 
risky  procedure  to  hit  a  rubber-cored  ball 
into  the  wind  with  pull  on  it  so  that  it 
may  come  back  to  the  middle  of  the  course. 
It  is  nice  if  you  can  do  it,  and  I  know 
that,  in  the  conditions  described  the  great 
majority  of  good  golfers  attempt  it.  All 
the  same  it  is  hazardous.  A  ball  with 
"  draw  "  on  it  naturally  runs  farther  than 
any  other  ;  its  trajectory  is  low,  and  at 
the  finish,  it  is  spinning  in  such  a  way  as 
to  scamper  gaily  over  the  ground,  aided 
and  abetted  by  the  wind.  That  is  the 
danger  of  it.  Unless  the  golfer  is  very 
skilful,  unless  he  possesses  a  particularly 
fine  power  of  discrimination  in  judging 
the  force  of  the  elements  and  selecting 
the  place  of  descent,  the  resilient  rubber- 
cored  ball  will  very  likely  swing  round  at 


GOLF  IN  A  WIND  213 

such  a  pace,  and  with  such  spin  on  it  when 
the  wind  takes  command  of  it,  as  to  run 
right  across  the  fairway  and  into  a  bunker 
or  the  rough  on  the  other  side.  Then, 
indeed,  will  he  have  sown  the  wind  and 
reaped  the  whirlwind.  It  needs  the  very 
greatest  delicacy  of  judgment  and  accuracy 
of  action  to  play  to  perfection  this  pulled 
shot  into  half  a  gale  of  wind.  When  it  is 
performed  successfully,  it  gains  a  lot  of 
ground,  for  it  is  the  longest  of  all  strokes  ; 
but,  personally,  I  do  not  think  that  under 
modern  conditions  it  is  worth  risking. 
A  few  golfers  possess  the  instinct  which 
enables  them  to  execute  it  triumphantly 
nearly  every  time  they  try  it,  but  I  am 
sure  that  the  majority  would  be  wise  if 
they  resolved  to  abandon  it.  It  may 
seem  a  proper  and  profitable  undertaking 
to  aim  with  pull  into  a  right-to-left  wind 
in  order  to  make  the  latter  help  in  the 
cause,  but  too  often  it  means  a  scuttle  of 
the  ball  across  the  course  (especially  when 
the  fairway  is  narrow)  and  a  fate  that 


2i4  HOW  TO  PLAY  GOLF 

seems  outrageous.  This,  at  least,  is  the 
conclusion  which  I  have  reached  after  see- 
ing the  shot  played  many  hundreds  of 
times,  and  after  playing  it  myself. 

The  above  remarks  contradict,  I  know, 
my  old  views  on  the  subject ;  but  the 
game  has  altered  a  lot  in  a  few  years.  I 
used  to  recommend  the  policy  (which  is 
even  now  an  easy  favourite)  of  striking 
into  the  wind  and  imparting  "  draw  "  to 
the  ball.  That  system  could  be  attempted 
with  safety  when  the  ball  was  a  less  lively 
creation  than  it  is  at  the  present  time. 
It  can  be  tried  now  on  soil  more  or  less 
heavy,  but  when  the  turf  accentuates  the 
run,  as  it  does,  I  suppose,  at  most  times 
during  the  spring,  summer,  and  autumn, 
such  a  shot  in  tempestuous  circumstances 
is  beset  with  danger.  What  I  always  do 
is  to  aim  very  slightly  to  the  left  (just  one 
small  degree  in  the  same  direction  as  that 
in  which  the  wind  is  blowing),  and  com- 
municate slice  to  the  ball.  The  initial 
velocity  of  the  shot  prevents  the  wind 


GOLF  IN  A  WIND  215 

from  mastering  it.  Then  when  its 
strength  is  dying,  the  spin  begins  to  exert 
influence,  curls  the  ball  into  the  wind, 
and  brings  it  down  quickly  into  the  middle 
of  the  course  with  little  run  on  it.  I  am 
free  to  confess  that  the  distance  to  be 
obtained  in  this  way  is  not  so  great  as  in 
the  case  of  a  pulled  stroke,  but  the  policy 
of  the  slice  is  by  far  the  more  trustworthy. 
It  is  better  to  lose  a  few  yards  and  be  safe, 
than  to  make  a  stroke  of  prodigious  length 
into  a  bad  place.  In  a  powerful  wind, 
the  slice  is  easier  to  regulate  than  the 
pull,  which  sometimes  defies  perfect  adjust- 
ment, so  exaggerated  are  the  effects  of 
the  very  slightest  error  of  omission  or 
commission.  Therefore,  my  advice  to  the 
golfer  who  desires  to  consistently  conquer 
a  turbulent  air  (and,  incidentally,  his 
opponent)  is  to  pin  his  faith  to  the  cut 
stroke.  I  believe  that  in  nine  cases  out 
of  ten,  it  will  pay  where  the  up-to-date 
ball  is  concerned. 

In  playing  for  the  slice,  the  stance  should 


216  HOW  TO  PLAY  GOLF 

be  open — the  ball  about  opposite  to  the 
toes  of  the  left  foot,  which  should  be  point- 
ing outwards,  and  the  right  foot  advanced 
so  that  the  executant  finds  himself  well 
behind  the  ball.  The  feet  ought  to  be 
about  the  same  distance  apart  as  for 
the  ordinary  stroke  ;  the  first  important 
matter  is  to  dispose  them  so  that  they 
produce  an  open  stance.  Every  golfer 
must  discover  for  himself  just  what 
degree  of  openness  he  needs,  but  it  will 
always  be  something  more  than  the 
ordinary,  because  he  is  going  to  aim  in 
some  measure  to  the  left  of  the  line  (that 
measure  depending  upon  the  strength  of 
the  wind)  and  make  the  ball  curl  back 
into  the  proper  path.  Now  as  to  the 
manner  of  producing  this  latter  effect. 
I  suppose  that  there  is  more  than  one 
way  of  doing  it.  Some  people  say, 
"  Keep  the  right  shoulder  down,  and  trust 
to  the  swing  to  bring  the  face  of  the  club 
across  the  ball/'  This  is  not  necessarily 
sufficient.  Personally,  I  have  a  method 


GOLF  IN  A  WIND  217 

which  may — or  may  not — be  different 
from  that  employed  by  the  majority  of 
players.  I  have  not  so  very  long  satis- 
fied myself  thoroughly  as  to  how  I  secure 
the  slice.  Now  I  am  convinced  about 
it.  With  the  weight  mostly  on  the  right 
foot,  I  take  the  club  up  in  an  outward 
direction  in  just  the  same  way  as  for  the 
cut  mashie  shot.  There  is  the  same  slight 
sway  up  to  the  point  where  the  elbows 
bend,  and  then  as  the  club  comes  back 
behind  the  head,  the  latter  returns  to  the 
proper  position.  At  the  top  of  the  swing, 
in  that  immeasurably  small  period  when 
one  braces  oneself  for  the  effort,  I  give  my 
body  a  sharp  turn  at  the  hips — a  turn  of 
a  few  inches  towards  the  hole.  That 
action  makes  my  downward  swing  the 
corollary  of  my  upward  swing  where  the 
intentional  slice  is  concerned.  That  small 
but  emphatic  turn  of  the  body  the  instant 
before  the  club  starts  to  descend  causes 
the  implement  to  come  down  on  the  same 
track  as  that  which  it  occupied  when 


218  HOW  TO  PLAY  GOLF 

going  up.  It  is  sent  out  into  much  the 
same  position  as  that  which  it  occupied 
at  the  top  of  the  swing  for  the  cut  mashie 
stroke.  Round  it  comes  with  quickening 
speed  until  it  cuts  right  across  the  ball. 
The  position  of  the  body  is  recovered  at 
the  moment  of  impact,  and  the  follow- 
through  is  as  full  and  rhythmic,  providing 
that  the  stroke  has  been  properly  played, 
as  for  a  plain  drive,  although  the  club  is 
travelling  in  a  different  direction — across 
the  line  to  the  hole,  in  fact,  instead  of 
on  it. 

I  am  aware  that  this  explanation  refutes 
the  assertion  which  I  have  previously 
made  as  to  the  necessity  of  letting  the 
club  always  lead,  with  the  body  following. 
The  intentional  cut  is  the  one  shot  in  which 
the  body  should  lead  at  the  top  of  the 
swing  and  the  arms  move  next.  It  is 
the  precedence  of  body  movement  that 
produces  the  unintentional  slice,  similarly 
will  it  secure  the  intentional  effect.  The 
effort  needs  an  abandonment  of  most  of 


GOLF  IN  A  WIND  219 

the  essentials  of  ordinary  golf ;  you  do 
not  even  aim  behind  you  at  the  beginning 
of  the  downward  swing.  That  turn  at 
the  hips  sends  the  club  out  slightly  in 
front.  It  must  be  done  neatly  and  with- 
out a  jerk,  and  it  must  be  kept  strictly 
within  limits.  You  do  not  want  to  make  a 
jump  which  will  prevent  you  from  obtain- 
ing a  perfect  poise  of  the  body  for  the 
moment  of  impact.  The  balance  must 
be  restored  during  the  second  half  of 
the  downward  swing,  if  I  may  so  describe 
that  part  which  comes  into  being  after 
the  arms  have  gone  slightly  forward.  It 
must  be  a  small,  smooth,  and  easily 
recoverable  displacement  of  the  body. 
Then  it  will,  I  think,  secure  the  deliberate 
slice  better  than  any  other  method.  It 
is,  at  any  rate,  the  system  on  which  I 
always  execute  the  shot. 

Particularly  careful  should  the  player 
be  not  to  turn  his  right  hand  over  as  he 
strikes  the  ball.  If  you  turn  the  right 
hand  over  only  a  little,  the  result  must 


220  HOW  TO  PLAY  GOLF 

almost  inevitably  be  a  pull,  and  as  you 
are  already  aiming  to  the  left  of  the  line, 
the  ball  will  swing  round  to  the  on-side 
in  a  hair-raising  manner.  I  remember  on 
one  occasion  in  America  committing  an 
error  of  this  kind.  It  was  in  a  match 
against  the  best  ball  of  two  very  good 
golfers  at  Boston.  I  recollect  it  so  well 
because,  after  a  lot  of  travelling,  I  did  not 
feel  a  bit  like  entering  on  a  hard  game. 
I  opened  a  paper,  and  almost  the  first 
item  that  caught  my  eye  was  a  paragraph 
headed  : — "  Vardon  arrives  :  Confident  of 
winning  and  beating  record/' 

I  never  in  my  life  felt  less  like  doing 
those  things.  We  duly  reached  the  teeing 
ground.  The  first  hole  was  a  short  one. 
The  green  could  be  reached  with  a  cleek. 
Far  away  to  the  left  (it  looked  too  far 
off  for  anybody  to  get  near  to  it)  was  a 
pond.  I  played,  and  pulled  my  ball  what 
seemed  to  be  miles  off  the  course — plump 
into  the  middle  of  the  pond.  What  the 
spectators  could  have  thought  just  then 


GOLF  IN  A  WIND  221 

of  the  man  who  was  "  confident  of  winning 
and  beating  record/'  as  the  paper  had 
inconsiderately  said  of  me,  I  have  no  idea. 
Perhaps,  however,  the  incident  roused  me. 
At  any  rate,  I  really  did  play  well  after 
it,  and  accomplished  what  the  imaginative 
writer  had  evidently  expected  me  to  do. 
But  if  you  would  like  to  know  the  worst 
shot  I  ever  played,  that  start  at  Boston 
would  be  a  good  answer. 

From  the  foregoing  remarks,  it  may  be 
gathered  that  the  way  to  impart  inten- 
tional draw  to  the  ball  is  to  turn  the 
right  hand  over  at  the  instant  of  striking — 
or,  at  least,  turn  it  half  over.  It  is  the 
easiest  thing  in  the  world  to  overdo  the 
movement ;  that  is  why,  in  a  high  wind, 
the  shot  is  so  hazardous.  If  you  turn 
the  right  hand  over  only  a  fraction  of  an 
inch  too  much,  the  effect  of  the  excess  is 
apt  to  be  prodigious  ;  the  ball  curls  round 
like  a  boomerang,  and  tears  across  to  the 
other  side  of  the  course,  assisted  by  the 
wind.  The  stance  is,  to  all  intents  and 


HOW  TO  PLAY  GOLF 

purposes,  the  exact  antithesis  of  that  for 
the  slice.  In  the  address,  the  ball  should 
be  just  about  opposite  to  the  middle  of 
the  right  foot.  The  left  foot  should  be 
well  forward  so  that  the  player  finds  him- 
self distinctly  in  front  of  the  ball  and 
standing  for  a  shot  to  the  right  of  the  line. 
Now,  more  than  at  any  other  time,  is  the 
occasion  for  remembering  to  hold  tightly 
with  the  thumb  and  forefinger  of  the  right 
hand.  The  face  of  the  club  must  turn 
delicately  on  to  the  ball  as  the  instrument 
comes  down,  and  if  you  grip  a  little  tighter 
with  the  right  hand  than  with  the  left,  you 
have  a  considerable  chance  of  securing 
this  effect  without  worrying  unduly  about 
it.  It  is,  perhaps,  an  instinct  in  the 
matter  of  the  grip,  combined  with  the 
correct  stance,  that  makes  a  player  what 
is  called  "  a  natural  puller/'  This  shot 
is  much  safer  on  a  calm  day  than  in  a 
wind,  because,  in  the  absence  of  atmos- 
pheric disturbance,  there  is  a  considerable 
chance  of  finishing  on  the  course  even  if 


GOLF  IN  A  WIND  223 

the  turn-over  of  the  right  hand  be  executed 
to  excess. 

Naturally  on  a  tranquil  day,  it  is  not 
necessary  to  aim  so  far  to  the  right  as 
when  a  wind  is  ready  to  exert  its  in- 
fluence, but  the  principles  of  the  stroke 
hold  good  for  all  occasions.  It  is  by  a 
good  deal  the  longest  driving  shot  "  on 
the  market/'  and  as  it  does  not  entail 
great  risk  when  the  elements  are  at  peace, 
it  is  rapidly  becoming  an  obsession.  Good 
golfers  and  excellent  fellows  are  becoming 
intoxicated  with  the  passion  for  length, 
and  they  are  playing  all  their  shots  with 
draw.  Having  got  into  the  way  of  doing 
it,  they  cannot  get  out  of  it.  They  are 
mechanical  pullers.  That  is  where  they 
are  handicapped,  for  the  shot  is  not  often 
useful  except  for  full  drives.  With  this 
subject  I  have  dealt,  however,  at  the 
beginning  of  the  book.  Sufficient  let  it 
be  if  I  suggest  to  the  aspirant  to  fame  that 
he  should  not  neglect  the  other  strokes  in 
the  game,  strokes  of  inestimable  import- 


224  HOW  TO  PLAY  GOLF 

ance,  in  his  efforts  to  master  this  shot  that 
gratifies  the  eminently  human  desire  to 
make  the  ball  go  a  very  long  way.  Let 
him  be  as  determined  to  practise  the  slice, 
the  length  of  which  shot  can  be  judged 
with  accuracy  since  it  is  nearly  all  carry,  as 
the  pull,  which  produces  a  flat  carry  and 
a  long  canter.  He  will  be  all  the  better 
for  the  diversity  of  his  methods. 

I  suppose  that,  for  the  indifferent  per- 
former, there  is  no  experience  more  trying 
than  that  of  playing  a  hole  in  the  teeth 
of  a  strong  wind.  The  ball  never  seems 
to  go  any  distance,  and  it  has  an  aggravat- 
ing way  of  being  caught  in  the  gale  and 
coming  back  towards  its  owner  just  when 
it  might  reasonably  have  rewarded  his 
clean  hit  by  travelling  a  bit  farther  than 
usual.  He  often  discovers  that  a  topped 
shot  which  goes  straight  serves  him  as 
well  as  a  properly  struck  ball.  That  is 
because  the  former  dodges  the  wind,  but 
as  topping  is  not  the  proper  game,  it  is 
obviously  his  duty  to  keep  the  ball  as  low 


GOLF  IN  A  WIND  225 

as  possible  while  making  sure  of  raising 
it  from  the  ground.  First  of  all  the  tee 
should  be  low.  The  stance  should  be 
forward — not  quite  so  forward  as  for  the 
push-shot,  but  with  the  hands  the  smallest 
distance  conceivable  in  front  of  the  ball 
during  the  address.  That  is  the  most 
important  principle  of  the  shot;  for  then, 
given  a  true  swing,  the  club  will  come 
down  on  the  ball  in  such  a  way  as  to 
keep  it  down  throughout  its  flight.  As  the 
implement  descends  most  of  the  weight 
should  be  transferred  to  the  left  leg,  so 
that  the  body  may  go  forward  slightly 
with  the  club.  Obviously  the  whole 
tendency  of  the  stance  and  action  is  to 
beat  the  ball  down,  as  it  were,  while  hitting 
it  so  cleanly  as  to  lift  it  from  the  tee. 
The  iron  shot  against  the  wind  should  be 
a  push-shot  pure  and  simple.  Nothing 
else  is  quite  so  good,  for  an  adverse  wind 
provides  the  ideal  circumstances  in  which 
to  make  the  most  of  the  "  push." 

Golf  down  wind  is  a  simple  business, 
15 


226  HOW  TO  PLAY  GOLF 

so  long  as  you  pay  sufficient  prospective 
attention  to  the  hazards  ahead.  The 
drive  is  easy  ;  the  chief  danger  is  that 
of  getting  into  a  bunker  which  is  meant 
to  catch  a  bad  second  shot.  In  the 
absence  of  such  peril,  tee  high  (but  not 
so  high  as  to  introduce  the  possibility  of 
hitting  under  the  ball),  stand  rather  behind 
the  ball,  swing  truly,  and  at  the  time  of 
impact  throw  most  of  the  weight  on  to 
the  right  leg  so  as  to  lift  the  ball  into  the 
air,  and  give  it  the  full  benefit  of  the  wind. 
In  approaching,  it  is  not  bad  to  remember 
what  I  have  already  written  as  to  the 
preferableness,  on  hard  ground,  of  hugging 
the  bunkers  on  the  wings  at  the  risk  of 
making  their  acquaintance.  This,  how- 
ever, must  be  left  to  the  player's  judg- 
ment, and  to  the  situation  that  is  offered 
on  the  other  side  of  the  green,  whither  the 
ball  may  make  its  ungovernable  way. 

Personally,  the  worst  wind  I  ever  ex- 
perienced was  that  which  prevailed  during 
the  open  championship  at  Hoylake  in 


GOLF  IN  A  WIND  227 

1907,  when  Arnaud  Massy  plugged  his 
way  so  gallantly  to  victory.  It  was 
terrific.  The  fourth  hole,  a  short  one, 
which  can  often  be  played  with  a  mashie, 
required  a  full  driver  shot,  and  even  that 
had  to  be  kept  low  in  order  to  escape  the 
full  force  of  the  gale  that  was  raging  over- 
head. I  like  Hoylake,  and  one  of  the 
few  faults  I  have  ever  seen  in  it  was 
the  bank  which  had  been  raised  for  that 
occasion  a  few  yards  in  front  of  the  fourth 
teeing  ground.  In  order  to  reach  the 
green,  it  was  necessary  to  drive  very  low, 
and  a  lot  of  men  who  played  the  only 
shot  for  the  occasion  (Mr  John  Ball,  I 
believe,  among  the  number)  were  caught 
by  that  bank  about  five  yards  in  front  of 
the  place  from  which  the  ball  had  started. 
One  player  had  a  most  exciting  experi- 
ence ;  he  went  from  the  bank  into  the 
shelter  hard  by,  and  dodged  all  round  the 
teeing  ground  until  at  length  he  reached 
the  green  in,  I  think,  7,  and  holed  out  in  9. 
At  the  sixth  hole,  it  was  impossible  to 


228  HOW  TO  PLAY  GOLF 

get  even  up  to  the  corner  of  the  garden 
with  the  drive.  Massy  played  some  great 
golf  during  that  trying  week. 

The  next  worst  wind  I  remember  was 
that  which  prevailed  during  the  tourna- 
ment at  Newcastle,  Co.  Down,  in  1898. 
There  was  rain,  too,  in  bucketsful.  I 
know  that,  in  the  qualifying  competition, 
we  positively  ran  round ;  those  who  did 
not  sprint  round  the  links  ran  into  the  club- 
house. Many  players  retired  at  the  third 
hole,  and  the  course  was  bestrewn  with 
the  remains  of  umbrellas.  On  the  night 
before  the  final,  in  which  I  met  Taylor, 
I  asked  the  attendant  at  the  place  in 
which  I  was  staying  to  see  that  my 
golf  boots  were  dry  by  the  morning. 
He  saw  to  it  most  effectually.  I  do 
not  know  whether  he  put  them  on  the 
fire  or  in  the  oven  ;  at  any  rate,  as  I 
made  my  first  tee-shot  in  the  morning, 
they  both  split  right  across  the  sole.  The 
best  game  I  ever  played  in  my  life  with 
the  gutta-percha  ball  was  played  in  that 


GOLF  IN  A  WIND  229 

ruined  foot-gear.  I  have  since  wondered 
in  times  of  adversity  whether  it  would  be 
a  good  thing  to  split  my  boots. 

The  wind  is  a  fine  educator ;  I  recom- 
mend the  golfer  to  lose  no  opportunity 
to  coquet  with  it.  For  the  present,  how- 
ever, he  must  have  had  enough  of  it.  I 
only  hope  that  he  has  not  been  involved 
in  it  so  long  as  to  leave  him  tired  and 
struggling  for  his  breath. 


CHAPTER  XII 
SOME  COMMON  FAULTS 

ATUMEROUS  and  varied  are  the  ills 
L  i  to  which  the  golfing  flesh  is  heir. 
Fortunately  it  is  nearly  always  possible 
for  an  experienced  player  to  diagnose 
with  accuracy  the  disease  of  stance  or 
swing  which  is  causing  distress  to  a  fellow- 
golfer,  point  out  to  him  the  character  of 
his  burden,  and  suggest  a  cure.  In  that 
respect,  golf  is  different  from  most  other 
outdoor  games.  The  ball  is  struck  from 
a  stationary  position ;  consequently, 
cause  is  as  clearly  defined  as  effect  to 
the  person  who  has  made  a  deep  study 
of  the  shots. 

Occasionally,  in  the  case  of  an  ordinarily 
good  player  who  is  temporarily  harassed 
by  a  slight  deviation  from  the  correct 
method,  the  secret  of  the  trouble  is  hard 


230 


SOME  COMMON  FAULTS         231 

to  fathom.  I  know  of  one  excellent  golfer 
who,  in  a  time  of  adversity,  called  together 
quite  a  large  party  of  championship 
winners  in  order  that  they  might  examine 
his  methods,  confer  as  to  the  nature  of  . 
his  affliction,  and  prescribe.  After  a  little 
while  they  discovered  the  origin  of  the 
disease,  and  effected  a  cure.  The  discus- 
sion that  proceeded  while  the  patient 
displayed  his  swing  was  solemn  in  the 
extreme  ;  it  was  like  a  meeting  of  special- 
ists at  a  critical  point  in  a  grave  illness. 
Still,  it  had  good  results.  Naturally,  in 
the  case  of  an  indifferent  player,  diagnosis 
is  easier,  because  the  faults  are  generally 
more  pronounced.  My  object  in  this 
chapter  is  to  deal  with  affections  that 
often  visit  themselves  upon  the  moderate 
golfer,  to  explain  the  cause  of  such  dis- 
tressing phenomena,  and  to  indicate  how 
they  may  be  eradicated.  I  do  not  propose 
to  launch  out,  like  a  quack  doctor,  with 
the  remark  that  I  have  a  cure  for  every 
complaint.  Much  must  be  left  to  the 


232  HOW  TO  PLAY  GOLF 

heedfulness  and  diligence  of  the  patient 
himself.  Moreover,  there  are  some  cases 
so  terribly  complicated  (the  stance,  the 
swing,  and  everything  else  are  wrong), 
that  there  is  little  hope  for  the  victim 
unless  he  decides  to  forget  his  present 
methods,  and  start  the  game  over  again 
in  the  proper  way.  He  must  make  a  new 
golfer  of  himself.  An  instance  of  this 
kind  comes  to  my  mind.  The  victim  of 
chronic  incorrectness  whom  I  have  in 
view  is  one  of  the  best-hearted  men  I 
know,  and  I  must  confess  that  he  derives 
boundless  enjoyment  from  the  pursuit  of 
the  pastime  in  his  own  peculiar  way ;  but 
his  style  is  really  enough  to  make  the 
hair  of  an  instructor  stand  on  end. 

In  some  extraordinary  manner  he  hits 
the  ball  with  the  top  of  the  club-head — 
that  is  to  say,  on  that  part  where  the 
name  is  engraved.  This  is  not  merely 
an  occasional  eccentricity ;  .  he  does  the 
the  same  thing  with  nearly  every  shot 
he  plays,  even  through  the  green.  He 


SOME  COMMON  FAULTS         233 

wears  the  name  off  the  wood  in  next  to 
no  time.  He  cannot  use  iron  clubs  be- 
cause the  surface  at  the  top  of  the  head 
is  not  sufficiently  big  to  enable  him  to 
hit  the  ball.  Rumour  says  that  he  has 
never  been  known  to  strike  with  the  face. 
To  hear  him  call  for  a  spoon  when  he  is 
right  under  a  hedge  is  almost  paralysing. 
I  once  followed  his  fortunes  for  about  ten 
minutes  on  a  certain  course.  Starting 
from  the  fourth  tee,  he  directed  the  ball 
by  a  series  of  zig-zag  movements  on  to 
a  green  of  the  homeward  half.  Having 
dropped  his  ball  at  the  side,  he  proceeded 
to  scoop  it  on  to  yet  another  green  in  the 
last  nine  holes.  He  was  still  playing  to 
the  fourth.  From  his  new  base  of  opera- 
tions, he  got  into  a  pond  which  was  sup- 
posed to  be  a  hazard  for  another  hole 
which  he  had  yet  to  tackle.  Ultimately 
he  reached  the  fourth  green  after  having 
worked  his  way  completely  round  it.  The 
man  who  is  so  philosophic  as  to  be  able 
to  thoroughly  enjoy  the  game  even  when 


234  HOW  TO  PLAY  GOLF 

he  plays  it  very  badly  is  an  enviable  soul. 
I  do,  indeed,  covet  his  happy  disposition. 
The  great  majority  of  golfers,  however, 
earnestly  desire  to  execute  the  shots 
properly,  and  when  a  person  finds  that 
he  is  doing  nearly  everything  wrongly,  I 
can  but  recommend  him  to  place  himself 
in  the  hands  of  a  capable  coach,  and  learn 
whether  his  only  remedy  is  the  desperate 
one  of  retracing  his  footsteps  to  the  place 
from  which  he  started,  and  beginning  his 
career  as  a  golfer  in  an  amended  manner. 

Let  us  consider,  however,  the  case  of 
the  player  who  is  in  possession  of  the 
right  ideas,  but  who  is  suffering  tribulation 
on  account  of  a  temporary  incapacity  to 
put  those  ideas  into  operation.  He  should 
look  first  to  ascertain  that  he  is  gripping 
properly.  He  may  have  fallen  unwitt- 
ingly into  the  habit  of  placing  one  hand 
or  the  other  too  far  under  the  shaft,  or  he 
may  have  gone  to  the  opposite  extreme, 
which  is  equally  bad.  Whether  the  golfer 
affects  the  overlapping  grip  or  the  older 


SOME  COMMON  FAULTS         235 

two-V  grip,  in  which  the  hands  touch  but 
do  not  overlap,  it  is  important  to  see  that 
the  knuckles  are  neither  under  nor  over 
the  shaft  of  the  club.  As  nearly  as  makes 
no  difference,  the  knuckles  of  the  left 
hand  should  be  facing  the  line  of  play, 
while  those  of  the  right  hand  should  be 
pointing  in  the  other  direction.  I  am 
writing,  of  course,  of  right-handed  golf. 
In  no  circumstances,  should  the  knuckles 
of  either  hand  be  looking  down  at  the 
turf  or  up  at  the  sky. 

A  frequent  cause  of  disaster,  especially 
with  iron  clubs,  is  failure  to  ground  the 
implement  in  a  reasonable  manner  behind 
the  ball.  The  proper  way  is  the  easiest ; 
that,  perhaps,  is  why  so  many  thousands 
of  people  do  not  take  advantage  of  it. 
In  golf,  as  in  other  affairs  of  life,  humanity 
has  a  knack  of  making  things  difficult  for 
itself.  There  is  no  surer  means  of  learn- 
ing how  far  to  stand  from  the  ball  than  the 
simple  expedient  of  seeing  that  the  whole 
length  of  the  club's  sole,  from  toe  to  heel, 


HOW  TO  PLAY  GOLF 

is  resting  on  the  turf  when  the  club  is 
grounded.  Yet  there  are  countless  players 
who  take  up  their  stance  and  perform  the 
ceremony  of  the  address  with  the  toe  of 
the  cleek,  iron,  or  mashie  cocked  into  the 
air.  Having  occupied  a  position  a  goodly 
distance  from  the  ball  for  the  driver  shot, 
they  appear  to  be  afraid  of  drawing  appre- 
ciably closer  when  they  have  to  select  one 
of  the  shorter  clubs.  So  far  as  one  can 
judge,  they  fear  that  they  may  get  so  near 
as  to  be  unable  to  swing  freely.  They 
ought  to  be  considerably  closer  for  the 
iron  or  the  mashie  than  for  the  driver. 
They  may  rest  assured  that  if  they  have 
space  sufficient  in  which  to  swing  back, 
they  will  have  just  as  much  room  in  which 
to  come  down  again.  There  is  such  a 
fault  as  getting  too  close  to  the  ball,  but 
it  is  a  blight  which  affects  only  one  player 
for  every  fifty  golfers  who  do  not  stand 
near  enough  for  their  iron  shots.  They 
reach  forward  in  a  strained  manner  —  a 
process  which  in  itself  compels  them  to 


SOME  COMMON  FAULTS         237 

stoop  unduly — with  the  result  that  they 
have  very  little  chance  of  either  pivoting 
properly  or  grazing  the  turf  with  the  length 
of  the  club's  sole  as  they  execute  the 
stroke.  It  is  easy  to  fall  into  the  habit  of 
stretching  the  arms  too  much  in  the  address 
in  order  to  reach  the  ball ;  it  is  equally 
easy  to  avoid  this  straining  by  closing  in 
a  little  on  the  ball.  Therefore,  let  the 
player  who  is  in  the  throes  of  purgatory 
satisfy  himself  that  he  is  gripping  properly, 
and  soling  the  club  properly. 

The  right  stance  comes  readily  to  the 
golfer  once  he  knows  the  game,  but  it 
does  not  present  itself  without  being  sought. 
It  is  seldom  a  gift,  and  it  can  rarely 
be  left  to  look  entirely  after  itself.  It 
has  to  be  studied,  and  the  knowledge 
acquired  during  the  course  of  education 
has  to  be  exercised  for  every  shot.  Some 
players  stand  with  their  feet  so  far  apart, 
and  others  with  their  feet  so  close  to- 
gether, that  they  cannot  possibly  distribute 
their  weight  evenly.  Stance  is  a  matter 


238  HOW  TO  PLAY  GOLF 

of  great  importance,  and  I  recommend 
the  aspirant  to  success  to  pay  the  closest 
attention  to  it. 

Amongst  beginners,  the  most  common 
fault  is  topping.  That  is  curious,  because, 
to  the  person  who  has  come  to  be  capable 
of  playing  a  good  game,  intentional  topping 
is  one  of  the  most  difficult  feats  in  the 
realm  of  golf.  As  it  is  valueless,  nobody 
endeavours  to  cultivate  it,  but,  in  cap- 
ricious moments,  I  have  tried  to  accom- 
plish it  consistently,  and  have  concluded 
the  trials  in  a  state  of  wonderment  at  the 
beginner's  capacity  for  it.  I  am  saying 
this  in  no  spirit  of  exaltation,  and  with 
no  desire  to  mock  the  victim  of  an  attack 
of  unintentional  topping ;  I  am  merely 
trying  to  induce  him  to  believe  that  it  is 
the  easiest  disease  in  the  world  to  expel 
from  the  system  for  the  simple  reason  that 
it  is  the  hardest  to  retain.  There  is  very 
little  space  at  which  to  hit  in  order  to 
come  down  on  top  of  a  ball.  That  the 
novice  should  repeatedly  light  on  that 


SOME  COMMON  FAULTS         239 

small  area  is  one  of  the  mysteries  of  the 
game. 

Topping  is  nearly  always  caused  by 
either  straightening  the  body,  and  there- 
fore lifting  the  head  at  the  instant  of  im- 
pact, or  hugging  the  arms  up  towards  the 
chest  as  the  club  nears  the  ball.  Swaying 
to  the  right  and  failing  to  recover  during 
the  downward  swing  will  also  promote 
topping,  but  the  same  fault  will  produce 
nearly  every  other  affliction  to  which  the 
golfing  race  is  susceptible,  so  that  its 
ravages  cannot  be  discussed  under  this 
heading  alone.  What  often  happens  is 
that  the  player  takes  the  club  back  pro- 
perly and  still  tops — through  either  lifting 
his  head  or  jerking  his  arms  up  as  the 
club  meets  the  ball.  In  the  latter  case, 
he  has  usually  been  attacked  by  a  sudden 
apprehension  that  there  is  no  room  for 
the  implement  to  go  through  to  the  finish 
of  the  stroke.  He  thinks  that  he  is  going 
to  hit  the  ground  a  long  way  behind  the 
ball,  and  makes  a  desperate  effort  to  put 


24o  HOW  TO  PLAY  GOLF 

things  right.  The  almost  inevitable  issue 
is  a  topped  shot.  If,  having  addressed 
the  ball,  he  will  focus  his  attention  on  the 
swing,  he  need  have  little  fear  as  to  the 
club  finding  all  the  space  that  it  wants 
for  its  work.  It  is  when  he  tries  to  alter 
its  course  that  he  comes  to  grief.  Lifting 
the  head  may  be  due  to  anxiety  to  see  the 
result  of  the  stroke,  or  to  an  involuntary 
movement  for  which  the  player  cannot 
account.  That  is  to  say,  he  perhaps 
straightens  his  posture  while  still  keeping 
his  eye  fixed  on  the  spot  which  the 
ball  is  leaving.  He  may  not  even  know 
that  his  body  (and  with  it  his  head)  has 
risen  an  inch  or  so.  Assiduous  practice 
alone  will  master  this  fault,  and  I  would 
recommend  the  unhappy  victim  to  engage 
in  the  task  in  company  with  that  device 
which  helped  so  much  to  make  Colonel 
Quill  a  scratch  player  at  the  age  of  fifty- 
six.  It  is  surprising  how  the  thing  induces 
you  to  keep  your  head  down.  It  is  the 
best  cure  for  topping  that  I  know. 


SOME  COMMON  FAULTS         241 

Slicing  is  the  most  unprofitable  vice  in 
the  game.  A  crooked  shot  that  goes  a 
considerable  distance  is  not  wholly  awful ; 
there  is  a  silver  lining  to  the  cloud,  to 
which  the  player  draws  attention  by 
remarking  to  his  opponent : — "  It  went 
a  deuce  of  a  long  way,  anyhow/'  The 
worst  of  the  sliced  ball  is  that  it  seldom 
travels  very  far.  As  a  rule  it  is  caused 
by  swaying  the  body  to  the  right  during 
the  upward  swing  (that  is  to  say,  not 
turning  at  the  hips),  or  by  perpetrating 
at  the  top  of  the  swing,  when  the  hips 
have  screwed  up  properly,  the  common 
error  of  beginning  to  unwind  at  the  hips 
before  starting  the  club  on  its  return 
journey.  Assuming  that  the  golfer  knows 
how  to  swing,  this  premature  movement 
of  the  body  is  nearly  always  the  cause 
of  slicing.  It  results  in  the  arms  being 
thrown  forward,  whereupon  the  face  of 
the  instrument  cuts  across  the  ball  and 
produces  the  slice.  The  remedy  is  to 
determine  that  the  club-head  shall  always 
16 


242  HOW  TO  PLAY  GOLF 

lead,  and  to  aim  at  the  beginning  of  the 
downward  swing  at  a  point  slightly  behind 
the  player.  It  is  a  good  tip  to  take  up 
a  position  close  to  a  tree  (although  not 
sufficiently  near  to  hit  it)  so  that  the  timber 
is  to  the  right  of  you  and  a  few  inches  in 
the  rear  of  the  line  w^iich  you  are  occupying. 
Then,  turning  the  hips  correctly  to  the  top 
of  the  swing,  try  to  imagine  that  you  want 
to  hit  that  tree  as  the  club  comes  down. 
As  previously  explained  it  is  necessary 
for  an  intentional  slice  to  give  the  body 
a  slight  turn  before  the  start  of  the  down- 
ward swing  (at  least,  that  is  how  I  secure 
the  effect)  ;  in  just  the  same  way  is  the 
slice  provoked  when  you  are  not  standing 
for  it,  and  do  not  want  it.  When  playing 
for  a  straight  shot,  the  club  should  begin 
to  descend  before  the  body  changes  from 
its  top-of-the-swing  position,  save  in  one 
respect.  As  the  club  starts  to  return,  the 
left  hip  may  be  pushed  slightly  towards 
the  hole — not  unscrewed,  but  urged  an 
inch  or  two  sideways  so  as  to  facilitate 


SOME  COMMON  FAULTS         243 

the  unwinding  of  the  frame  which  follows 
immediately.  For  the  rest,  the  arms 
should  follow  the  club  as  it  comes  down, 
and  the  body  should  follow  the  arms  as 
they  come  round.  If  you  aim  behind 
at  the  outset,  the  body  will  not  often 
turn  first. 

Pulling  is  a  curious  phase  of  the  game. 
In  certain  circumstances  a  little  of  it  is 
excellent  because  it  goes  such  a  long  way, 
or  rather  makes  the  ball  go  such  a  long 
way.  The  veriest  trifle  more  than  the 
desired  quantum  of  pull,  however,  often 
spells  disaster.  Ten  or  twelve  years  ago, 
the  natural  slicer  was  more  common  than 
the  natural  puller ;  nowadays,  the  latter 
predominates,  and,  indeed,  almost  fills  the 
golfing  universe.  As  a  consequence,  the 
ugly  hook  which  sends  the  ball  off  the 
course  to  the  left  is  perhaps  the  most 
frequent  of  faults;  for,  in  the  manner  of 
its  execution,  it  is  not  greatly  different 
from  the  skilful  pull.  It  is  often  caused 
by  a  failure  to  turn  the  left  wrist  at  the 


244  HOW  TO  PLAY  GOLF 

beginning  of  the  upward  swing  so  that 
the  knuckles  are  visible,  if  you  turn  your 
head  to  look  for  them,  instead  of  being  so 
far  over  the  club  as  to  be  out  of  sight 
Take  an  iron  club  three-quarters  of  the 
way  up  ;  stop  in  the  position  thus  ob- 
tained, and  then  examine  your  left  hand. 
If  it  is  so  turned  away  from  you  that  you 
can  see  only  one  or  two  of  the  knuckles, 
it  is  wrong.  The  lot  ought  to  be  visible 
because  the  left  wrist  ought  to  be  under 
the  shaft — not  pointing  skywards. 

Another  provocation  of  the  pull  is  the 
fault  of  holding  tighter  with  one  hand 
than  the  other,  and  a  third  is  turning  the 
right  hand  over  at  the  moment  of  impact. 
Trie  first  and  last  of  these  causes  are 
practically  synonymous.  As  the  imple- 
ment goes  back  the  face  of  it  should  be 
turning  away  from  the  ball,  so  that  it  may 
resume  only  at  the  instant  of  hitting  the 
position  which  it  occupied  when  it  was 
grounded  behind  the  ball.  If  you  do  not 
turn  the  club-face  away  by  gently  screw- 


IN    THE    BEGINNING 

The  wrong  back  swing.     The  left  wrist  has  not  turned  sufficiently,  and  therefore  the  club  face  has  not 
turned  away  from  the  ball 


',••    • 

t          C  ,       «' 


IN    THE    BEGINNING 
The  correct  up -swing 


SOME  COMMON  FAULTS         245 

ing  the  left  wrist  at  the  start,  the  chances 
are  that  the  right  hand  will  have  control 
coming  down,  and  be  in  the  same  position 
as  if  that  hand  had  been  turned  over 
quickly  at  the  critical  moment.  Holding 
tighter  with  one  hand  than  the  other 
produces  much  the  same  effect.  There 
are  people  who  say  that  you  should  grip 
tighter  with  the  left  hand  than  with  the 
right.  Personally,  I  think  there  ought  to 
be  no  distinction.  The  tight  hold  with 
left  hand  is  apt  to  drag  the  right  hand 
over,  and  the  result  is  a  pull.  I  am  sure 
all  good  golfers  grip  as  firmly  with  one 
hand  as  with  the  other.  I  know  that  for 
an  ordinary  swing  my  own  right  hand  is 
no  more  relaxed  than  the  left  at  any  stage 
of  the  movement.  If  the  left  hand  were 
really  the  master  hand,  if  one  hand  did 
all  the  hard  work  and  the  other  merely 
acted  as  a  guide,  surely  it  would  be  possible, 
with  a  true  swing,  to  drive  as  far  with  one 
hand  as  with  two.  I  have  tried  single- 
handed  driving.  I  have  hit  the  ball 


246  HOW  TO  PLAY  GOLF 

correctly  and  made  it  go  straight,  and 
have  never  succeeded  in  inducing  it  to 
travel  anything  like  so  far  as  with  two 
hands.  The  one  helps  as  much  as  the 
other  to  secure  distance ;  of  that  I  am 
certain  after  submitting  the  idea  of  a 
"  master  hand  "  to  exhaustive  trials.  In 
no  circumstances  should  the  right  hand 
be  the  predominant  partner.  By  his 
wooden  clubs  shall  ye  know  what  may  be 
called  "  the  right-hand  hitter."  He  wears 
away  the  wood  at  the  back  of  the  sole, 
and  reaches  the  inset  of  lead  in  a  very 
short  time.  That  is  because  he  is  con- 
stantly coming  down  on  the  back  of  the 
sole.  Neither  is  it,  however,  correct  to 
be  a  "  left  hand  hitter/'  that  is  to  say, 
to  make  the  left  do  most  of  the  work.  I 
feel  convinced  that  every  first-class  player 
uses  his  two  hands  without  giving  them 
distinctive  duties  to  perform.  Too  much 
left  is  as  bad  as  too  much  right ; 
either  is  apt  to  produce  the  hooked  shot. 
The  simplest  remedy  for  this  error  is  to 


SOME  COMMON  FAULTS       247 

make  sure  of  turning  the  face  of  the  club 
away  from  the  ball  at  the  beginning  of 
the  upward  swing  so  that  the  tendency 
of  the  right  to  assume  command  may  be 
checked.  When  that  turn  of  the  left 
wrist  has  been  completed  early  in  the 
swing,  the  golfer  should  not  be  conscious 
that  one  hand  is  trying  to  do  more  than 
the  other. 

In  all  these  matters,  it  is  essential  to 
remember  to  screw  your  hips  properly 
and  keep  your  head  steady.  Very  many 
golfers  do  everything  correctly  when 
taking  the  club  to  the  top  of  the  swing, 
and  cut  off  a  segment,  so  to  speak,  in 
coming  down.  They  throw  their  arms 
forward  immediately ;  they  miss  that 
section  just  behind  them — the  section  which 
they  had  to  form  in  order  to  get  the  club 
up  after  having  turned  the  left  wrist 
inwards.  Instead  of  following  the  same 
track  for  the  return  journey,  they  take  a 
short  cut  across  the  corner.  Out  goes  the 
club,  and  then  anything  may  happen. 


248  HOW  TO  PLAY  GOLF 

There  must  be  no  sudden  movement  of 
this  description.  If  in  the  middle  of  the 
task  of  winding  up  a  clock  you  were  to 
give  the  key  a  sudden  and  desperately 
violent  twist,  you  would  very  likely  realize 
in  the  course  of  a  minute  or  so  that  the 
works  had  gone  wrong.  So  will  the  golf 
swing  go  wrong  if  you  try  to  come  down 
by  making  a  quick  dash  across  the  track 
which  the  club  occupied  in  its  upward 
course.  This  throwing  out  of  the  arms  is 
a  frequent  cause  of  distress  in  connexion 
with  iron  shots.  Players  imagine  that 
they  are  farther  from  the  ball  than  is 
actually  the  case.  The  idea  seizes  them  at 
the  top  of  the  swing,  they  reach  forward 
directly  they  start  to  come  down  in  order 
to  make  sure  of  getting  to  the  ball,  and  the 
whole  operation  is  ruined.  In  the  case 
of  a  mashie  stroke,  the  face  of  the  club 
knocks  the  ball  on  to  the  socket  and  sends 
it  to  perdition.  The  best  cure  for  socket- 
ting  is  to  determine  that  the  left  arm  shall 
graze  the  coat  both  going  up  and  coming 


SOME  COMMON  FAULTS         249 

down.  If  the  left  arm  can  be  induced  to 
caress  the  jacket  all  the  way,  the  right 
arm  cannot  stray,  and  the  action  is 
correct. 

Schlaffing  is  caused  by  throwing  the 
weight  on  to  the  right  leg  at  the  moment 
of  hitting,  and  therefore  dropping  the 
right  shoulder  too  quickly.  The  right 
shoulder  has  to  come  down  in  order  to 
produce  the  proper  effect,  but  it  must  not 
drop  suddenly. 

There  are  some  players  who,  while  they 
nearly  always  strike  the  ball  accurately 
and  make  it  travel  in  a  straight  line, 
never  succeed  in  driving  far.  The  reason 
is  that  they  are  not  making  sufficient  use 
of  their  arms.  They  are  executing  the 
stroke  purely  by  the  twist  of  the  body, 
and  not  putting  their  arms  into  it.  It  is 
the  fact  that  the  arms  have  to  be  used 
in  order  to  obtain  distance  that  makes 
the  golfing  swing  partly  a  hit.  The  idea 
of  "  sweeping  the  ball  off  the  tee  "  is  very 
well  in  its  way,  but  the  arms,  kept  in 


250  HOW  TO  PLAY  GOLF 

decorous  position  by  the  trueness  of  the 
swing,  have  to  hit,  or  the  shot  will  be  of 
very  modest  length. 

I  think  that  we  have  considered  most 
of  the  common  ailments  of  the  golfer, 
but  there  are  a  few  points  of  a  general 
character  that  may  be  mentioned  before 
we  leave  the  sick-chamber.  In  the  first 
place,  the  player  who  aspires  to  real  success 
should  never  capitulate  to  the  idea  of 
trying  to  cure  a  slice  that  is  habitual  by 
playing  for  a  pull,  or  vice  versa.  At 
first  blush,  such  a  scheme  may  seem  to 
have  much  to  recommend  it,  but  if  he 
decide  to  adopt  it,  he  will  be  reduced, 
sooner  or  later,  to  a  state  of  despair.  He 
will  never  know  quite  where  he  is  going  ; 
he  will  be  all  hope  and  fear.  As  a  rule, 
the  corrective  influence  will  be  either  too 
weak  or  too  strong ;  if  it  be  too  strong, 
he  will  find  himself  endeavouring  to  remedy 
his  new  fault  by  cultivating  the  action 
which  he  set  out  to  eradicate.  I  know 
many  golfers  who  have  practised  this 


SOME  COMMON  FAULTS         251 

plan  of  existing  on  antidotes,  but  I  have 
never  met  one  who  has  made  a  success 
of  the  conspiracy.  Another  important  point 
is  to  make  sure  that  you  really  are 
slicing  or  pulling  before  you  attempt  to 
cure  the  assumed  defect.  You  may  be 
standing  in  such  a  way  that  a  straight 
shot  is  sure  to  go  to  either  the  left  or  the 
right  of  the  fairway.  During  the  address, 
the  face  of  the  club  should  be  square  to 
the  line  which  you  propose  to  follow.  And 
beware  of  altering  your  intentions  at  the 
top  of  the  swing.  I  must  confess  that 
this  is  a  counsel  of  perfection  up  to  which 
I  do  not  always  act  in  my  own  golf.  It 
is  one  of  the  trials  of  the  game  that,  just 
before  the  club  starts  to  come  down,  the 
player  suddenly  conceives  a  fancy  for 
executing  the  shot  in  a  manner  quite 
different  from  that  which  had  fixed  itself 
in  his  mind  during  the  upward  swing. 
Such  a  change  is  not  often  for  the  best. 


CHAPTER  XIII 

PROMINENT  PLAYERS  AND  THEIR 
METHODS 

NEXT  to  the  joy  of  playing  a  round 
there  is  no  more  engaging  occupation 
for  the  keen  habitue  of  the  links  than 
that  of  studying  the  methods  of  acknow- 
ledged masters  of  the  game.  Golf  can  be 
learnt  by  example  as  well  as  by  precept,  and 
I  am  certain  that  by  watching,  thinking 
and  practising,  it  is  possible  for  anybody,  to 
go  on  adding  to  his  store  of  knowledge  and 
degree  of  efficiency  till  the  end  of  his  playing 
days,  or,  at  any  rate,  till  the  finish  of  those 
days  which  precede  the  development  of  a 
rigid  body  and  stiff  knees.  The  crowd  at  a 
golf  match  consists  chiefly  of  enthusiasts 
who  want  to  see  causes  as  well  as  effects. 
The  latter  are  summed  up  in  the  result,  but 
I  suppose  that,  to  most  of  the  onlookers,  the 


852 


PROMINENT  PLAYERS          253 

issue  is  a  matter  of  little  importance.  What 
they  are  anxious  to  learn  is  how  the  players 
secure  the  result.  It  is  the  best  kind  of 
curiosity  in  the  world,  because  it  shows 
that  the  great  majority  of  people  regard 
the  game  in  the  proper  light ;  that  is  to 
say,  they  realize  its  scientific  beauties. 
They  desire  to  observe  not  only  whether 
the  ball  has  been  hit  on  to  the  green, 
but  how  the  performer  has  gone  about 
the  task  of  landing  it  there.  The  man 
who  is  taking  part  in  an  exhibition  match 
appreciates  to  the  full  the  penetrative 
mind  of  the  "  gallery/'  and  the  occasional 
captious  critic  who  insinuates  that  pro- 
fessionals do  not  worry  their  heads  very 
much  when  participating  in  exhibition 
games  is  hopelessly  mistaken  and  griev- 
ously unjust.  Nobody  could  play  golf 
well  unless  he  tried  hard  to  do  so, 
and  professionals  simply  have  to  play 
well.  There  is  no  danger  of  golf  ever 
being  regarded  as  an  entertainment  at 
the  expense  of  its  place  in  the  world  as 


254  HOW  TO  PLAY  GOLF 

an  active  recreation ;  consequently,  one 
may  reasonably  suggest  to  all  aspirants 
to  success  that  they  should  seize  every 
opportunity  of  examining  the  methods 
of  good  players.  This  particular  pursuit 
is  already  popular,  and  its  growth  cannot 
fail  to  be  profitable  to  the  standard  of 
the  game.  It  is  pleasant,  too,  for  the 
exhibitor  to  feel  that  the  followers  are 
closely  observant  of  his  methods.  From 
time  to  time,  I  have  had  curious  questions 
put  to  me  during  the  progress  of  rounds  as  to 
the  way  in  which  this  or  that  shot  has  been 
executed,  and  I  am  sure  that  I  have  always 
been  sensible  of  the  compliments  conveyed 
by  such  manifestations  of  interest. 

Edward  Ray  is  a  man  whom  I  like  to 
watch  on  the  links.  He  defies  so  many 
of  the  accepted  principles  of  the  game  ; 
he  is  so  very  nearly  a  complete  set  of  laws 
unto  himself.  He  sways  appreciably,  and 
heaves  at  the  ball.  He  is  a  master  of  the 
knack  of  recovering  the  right  position  at 
the  moment  of  impact  after  having  moved 


PROMINENT  PLAYERS          255 

his  head  and  body  during  the  backward 
swing  in  a  degree  that  would  spell  disaster 
to  almost  anybody  else.  He  is  the  brilliant 
exception  to  a  safe  rule.  As  he  brings  the 
club  down,  you  feel  that  he  is  either  going  to 
make  an  extraordinarily  good  shot  or  an 
extraordinarily  bad  one.  He  is  getting  into 
the  proper  position  all  the  while  ;  it  is  just 
a  question  as  to  whether  he  will  be  able  to 
resume  the  even  distribution  of  his  weight 
at  the  instant  of  hitting.  His  terrific 
lunge  almost  brings  your  heart  into  your 
mouth  lest  he  should  miss  the  shot.  You 
wonder  where  on  earth  the  ball  would  go 
in  the  event  of  such  a  catastrophe.  Then 
you  look  up,  and  see  the  article  sailing 
down  the  middle  of  the  course.  At  the 
psychological  moment  he  has  done  every- 
thing correctly.  Ray  has  his  own  way  of 
playing  golf,  and  it  is  fine  to  see  because  of 
its  individuality.  His  drives  and  his  cleek 
shots,  with  their  great  length  of  carry,  are 
among  the  best  things  in  the  game. 

Probably,  however,  his  favourite  shot  is 


256  HOW  TO  PLAY  GOLF 

the  long  approach  which  he  plays  with  his 
niblick.  He  is  a  marvel  at  it.  Here,  per- 
haps, you  are  cogitating  as  to  the  manner 
in  which  you  shall  get  up  with  a  straight- 
faced  iron,  when  you  suddenly  see  Ray 
thump  his  ball  to  the  hole-side  with  a 
niblick.  He  told  me  that,  during  the  open 
championship  which  he  won  at  Muirfield, 
he  chose  that  club  for  his  second  shot  to 
the  tenth  hole.  He  was  in  the  rough  to 
the  right,  and  the  second  shot  of  something 
over  100  yards  had  to  be  nearly  all  carry 
so  as  to  clear  the  big  sandhill.  And  he  did 
this  with  a  niblick  ! 

Given  the  chance,  I  like  nothing  better 
than  the  diversion  of  watching  the  play  of 
other  people.  I  wish  I  had  seen  more  of  the 
golf  of  the  leading  amateurs ;  not  having  had 
chances  of  studying  them  frequently,  per- 
haps I  ought  not  to  criticise  their  methods. 
When  one  is  engaged  in  a  round  honoured  by 
the  presence  of  a  large  "  gallery/'  there  is  not 
always  much  opportunity  of  distinguishing 
the  manner  in  which  the  opponent  sets  about 


PROMINENT  PLAYERS          257 

his  task.  It  is  exceedingly  useful  to 
observe  what  he  does,  and  what  reward 
he  reaps  ;  especially  is  this  the  case  on 
clay  courses,  where  one  cannot  always  be 
sure  as  to  the  pace  and  other  peculiarities 
of  the  ground,  and  where,  therefore,  the 
advantage  of  compelling  the  other  man 
to  play  the  "  odd  "  is  more  than  ordinarily 
useful.  During  a  tournament  or  exhibi- 
tion match,  however,  a  professional  is  apt 
to  be  enveloped  by  the  onlookers  directly 
he  has  accomplished  his  shot.  He  finds 
himself  in  a  whirling,  eddying  crowd,  and 
before  he  has  struggled  clear  of  it  and 
replied  to  questions  as  to  how  he  likes 
the  links,  and  whether  he  has  ever 
played  at  Pushem  -  along  -  the  -  mire,  his 
rival  has  reached  the  green,  and  the 
educative  phase  of  the  process  has 
been  lost  on  the  man  who  now  has  to 
supply  the  "  like/'  For  that  reason,  I 
know  less  than  I  would  like  to  know 
about  the  methods  of  several  very  fine 
players  whom  I  have  had  few  chances  of 
17 


258  HOW  TO  PLAY  GOLF 

watching,  but  who  have  heaped  discom- 
fiture upon  my  head.  Still,  there  are  well- 
known  golfers  with  whom  I  have  been  in 
more  or  less  constant  contact  for  many 
years,  and  whose  modes  of  operation  I 
have  had  chances  of  conning  in  the  course 
of  some  hundreds  of  meetings.  For 
instance,  I  have  come  to  the  conclusion 
that  I  enjoy  nothing  more  than  the  sight 
of  Braid  getting  out  of  the  rough.  The 
choice  may  not  indicate  a  Christian  spirit, 
but  the  best — or  worst — of  Braid  in  the 
rough  is  that  it  generally  means  no  punish- 
ment at  all  to  him.  It  is  a  real  treat  to 
watch  him  playing  a  shot  in  an  extremely 
difficult  position.  He  has  no  equal  at  it. 
The  only  place  in  which  he  is  beaten  is 
the  place  in  which  he  has  no  room  to 
swing  his  club.  Give  him  just  enough 
space  to  raise  the  implement  and  he  will 
recover  from  anything.  I  hope  it  will  be 
understood  that  I  wish  Braid  nothing 
but  good;  but  I  really  would  like  to  see 
him  more  often  in  the  rough — his  getting 


PROMINENT  PLAYERS          259 

out  of  it  is  such  a  thrilling  spectacle. 
The  trouble  may  be  gorse  or  rank  grass, 
or  rocks  or  a  railway  track  ;  as  he  takes 
the  club  up  you  realize  that  something 
will  have  to  go,  and  that  the  ball  will  go 
with  it.  He  brings  his  niblick  down  with 
terrific  power ;  there  is  nothing  like  it  in 
the  rest  of  golf.  He  plays  a  perfect  shot 
in  a  bunker.  I  remember  he  remarked 
on  one  occasion  that  he  did  not  mind 
being  photographed ;  but  that  he  wished 
that  the  pictures  were  not  so  monotonous 
in  depicting  him  in  difficulties.  "  People 
will  think  I  am  always  in  bunkers/' 
was  the  neat  way  in  which  he  summed 
up  the  situation.  I  know  from  long 
experience  that  Braid  is  very  seldom 
in  trouble.  His  skill  in  avoiding  it  has 
robbed  the  golfing  world  of  many  magni- 
ficent strokes  that  he  would  otherwise 
have  executed  in  getting  out  of  it. 

If  you  want  to  see  the  push-shot  played 
to  perfection,  there  is  nobody  better  to 
watch  than  Braid.  Addressing  the  ball 


260  HOW  TO  PLAY  GOLF 

with  his  hands  a  little  in  front  of  it,  he 
takes  the  club  back  in  a  more  upright 
manner  than  for  the  ordinary  stroke. 
Then  at  the  moment  of  impact,  his  arms 
lengthen  (or  at  any  rate  straighten)  and 
he  pushes  them  through  as  he  gives 
the  object  a  mighty  thump.  As  I  have 
previously  remarked,  I  would  recommend 
everybody  who  has  reached  the  stage  of 
ordinary  proficiency  to  practise  this  push- 
shot.  The  proper  accomplishment  of  it 
affords  more  gratification  than  anything 
else  in  the  game.  Indeed,  I  venture  to 
say  that  nobody  knows  how  joyous  a 
pursuit  is  golf  until  he  learns  the  push- 
shot.  To  loft  a  ball  into  the  air  is  a 
soulless  operation  by  comparison  with  the 
feat  of  making  it  travel  for  a  consider- 
able distance  in  one  plane.  Personally, 
I  play  nearly  all  my  strokes  with  iron 
clubs  in  this  way  ;  it  is  the  safest  as  well 
as  the  most  pleasurable  manner.  Whether 
the  shot  is  well  named  I  do  not  know.  It 
is  a  mixture  of  swing,  hit,  and  push,  with 


PROMINENT  PLAYERS          261 

the  last-named  influence  introduced  at 
the  moment  of  striking  so  that  the  arms 
push  through  the  ball,  and,  thus  extended, 
finish  in  such  a  way  that  the  right  fore- 
arm is  pointing  up  towards  the  sky.  Its 
nomenclature  might  be  improved,  but  as 
the  push-shot  we  know  it.  And  it  is 
the  best  shot  in  golf. 

J.  H.  Taylor  is  a  great  player.  I  like 
his  full  iron  shots  up  to  the  hole  quite  as 
much  as  his  mashie  shots,  for  which  he 
is  so  justly  famed.  His  cut  stroke  with 
the  mashie  is  a  picture  ;  he  seems  to  be 
born  to  execute  it  in  the  ideal  manner. 
You  will  notice  that,  for  all  his  shots,  he 
stands  with  the  face  of  the  club  turned 
slightly  away  from  the  ball.  I  presume 
that  he  always  aims  a  trifle  to  the  left  of 
the  pin,  and  cuts  the  ball.  That  being 
his  natural  method,  his  excellence  at 
the  cut  mashie  stroke  is  understandable. 
Taylor  can  always  be  watched  with  ad- 
vantage ;  his  swing  is  beautifully  under 
control,  and  he  hits  the  ball  with  that 


262  HOW  TO  PLAY  GOLF 

nip  —  that  element  of  resolution  —  which 
counts  for  so  much  in  the  execution  of  a 
shot.  For  the  man  who  has  developed 
an  inclination  to  falter  and  check  the 
pace  of  the  club  before  reaching  the  ball 
I  would  recommend  a  survey  of  Taylor 
playing  a  round.  He  is  never  caught 
trying  to  coax  his  rubber-core;  he  gives 
it  a  forceful  blow  every  time.  That  is 
the  only  way  to  make  it  fulfil  one's 
requirements. 

Another  very  fine  mashie  player  is 
Arnaud  Massy,  but  he  secures  his  effect 
in  a  fashion  different  from  that  adopted 
by  any  other  prominent  golfer  whom 
I  have  ever  seen.  He  introduces  an 
enormous  amount  of  "  stop "  into  his 
lofted  shots,  and  obtains  the  influence 
by  means  of  a  swing  which  is  peculiar 
to  himself.  At  the  top  of  the  swing,  he 
gives  the  club  a  flourish  which  sends  it 
over  his  head.  Then  he  brings  it  back 
again,  and  down  in  the  same  track  as  that 
which  it  occupied  when  going  up. 


PROMINENT  PLAYERS          263 

Alexander  Herd  is  a  master  of  the  spoon. 
Whenever  you  hear  him  call  for  that  club, 
you  can  rest  assured  (or  if  you  happen  to 
be  his  opponent  you  can  becalm  yourself 
with  resignation)  that  he  is  going  to  reach 
the  green.  He  gets  a  lot  of  cut  on  to  his 
spoon  shot,  and  makes  it  drop  right  up  by 
the  hole.  He  swings  for  it  in  just  the  same 
way  as  for  the  cleek,  but  gives  his  body 
a  slight  turn  at  the  hips  before  the  club 
starts  to  come  down,  and  so  obtains  the 
effect  of  the  slice.  George  Duncan  is 
another  great  spoon  player ;  indeed,  I 
have  seen  him  use  the  implement  on  many 
occasions  in  a  manner  which  I  do  not 
think  anybody  else  could  have  attained. 
In  any  case,  if  it  were  a  matter  of  a  con- 
test amongst  professionals  for  supremacy 
with  the  spoon,  Duncan's  one  formidable 
rival  would  be,  I  believe,  Herd.  Both 
men  employ  "  cut/'  which  is  an  invalu- 
able and  necessary  action  with  this  club, 
and  they  introduce  the  influence  very 
cleverly.  When  Duncan  and  I  played 


264  HOW  TO  PLAY  GOLF 

Braid  and  Sherlock  in  a  foursome  at  Stoke 
Poges  a  few  years  ago,  my  partner  must 
have  grown  somewhat  weary  after  a  while 
of  hearing  me  ask  him  to  take  his  spoon. 
Duncan  has  a  perfect  swing,  but  he  is  so 
extraordinarily  quick  that  it  is  very  hard 
to  tell  how  he  executes  his  shots.  The  ball 
is  on  the  ground  and  he  is  addressing  it ; 
a  moment  later,  while  you  are  still  waiting 
to  study  his  movements,  the  ball  is  hurt- 
ling through  the  air,  and  he  is  off  for  the 
next  stroke.  He  is  by  far  the  most  rapid 
golfer  I  have  ever  seen.  He  reminds  me 
of  the  story  of  a  professional  who  was 
giving  a  lesson  to  a  gentlemen  of  ebullient 
temperament.  The  latter  had  been 
supplied  with  the  usual  preliminary  hints, 
including  the  "  Slow  back  "  maxim  ;  he 
did  not  appear  to  be  greatly  impressed 
by  any  of  them.  He  took  his  driver  back 
in  whirlwind  fashion ;  missed  the  globe, 
and  nearly  tumbled  over.  "  You  must 
take  the  club  up  much  more  slowly  than 
that,"  said  the  instructor.  "  Rot !  "  was 


PROMINENT  PLAYERS          265 

the  reply.  The  student  made  another 
attempt ;  his  action  was  still  that  of  a 
"  backmarker  in  a  forked  lightning  con- 
gress/' Again  the  professional  protested. 
"  Stand  away  !  Stand  away  !  "  screamed 
the  beginner,  a  ferocious  gleam  in  his  eye, 
"  I've  been  quick  all  my  life,  and  I'm  not 
going  slowly  at  this  darned  game."  That 
is  a  sample  of  the  trials  that  enter  into  the 
life  of  a  golf  professional.  He  tries  to  do 
his  work  conscientiously;  and  sometimes 
has  enormous  difficulty  in  inducing  the 
pupil  to  assist  himself. 

There  are  many  other  splendid  players, 
whose  methods  I  fain  would  have  the 
opportunity  of  studying  more  closely. 
We  can  learn  at  golf  till  the  end  of 
life,  and  a  keen  observance  of  the  styles 
of  skilful  performers  often  generates  in- 
spiration and  encouragement.  There  is 
Tom  Ball,  with  that  gloriously  confident 
manner  of  putting,  and  peculiarity  of 
appearing  to  hit  the  ball  off  the  toe  of  the 
putter.  He  is  a  monumental  tribute,  too, 


266  HOW  TO  PLAY  GOLF 

to  the  importance  of  keeping  the  eye  on 
the  ball ;  even  when  the  latter  object  is 
in  the  hole  after  he  has  played  a  putt  of 
five  or  six  feet,  his  eye  has  not  moved. 
There  is  Fred  Robson,  with  his  beautiful 
brassie  shots  ;  there  is  James  Sherlock, 
with  his  charmingly  simple  system  of 
obtaining  great  length  by  means  of  an 
apparently  gentle  tap.  I  think  he  must 
talk  to  the  ball,  and  coax  it  into  a  friendly 
state.  I  am  sure  that  he  is  a  master  of 
the  low-flying  shot  with  pull,  executed  by 
the  half-turn  of  the  right  hand.  If  you 
would  know  that  shot,  watch  Sherlock.  An 
excellent  player  of  iron  shots  is  my  brother 
Tom.  I  very  much  like  watching  him 
execute  his  half-cleeks  up  to  the  hole. 

In  conclusion,  I  would  ask  you  to  re- 
member that  the  professional  gives  of  his 
best  when  he  plays  golf.  The  game  is  not 
so  easy  to  him  that  he  can  play  it  well 
without  trying  to  do  so.  I  am  certain 
that  it  is  not  easy  to  anybody.  One  dare 
not  be  careless  at  golf.  The  very  con- 


PROMINENT  PLAYERS          267 

stitution  of  the  pastime  declines  to  tolerate 
heedlessness.  If  you  are  following  a  pro- 
fessional match,  you  may  depend  upon 
it  that  the  players  are  striving  their 
utmost  to  produce  perfect  effects.  The 
people  who  talk  about  the  accomplish- 
ment of  the  strokes  as  a  mere  formality 
to  the  men  who  take  part  in  exhibition 
games  do  not  appreciate  the  science  of 
golf  in  its  fulness.  It  is  never  a  formality. 
The  best  day's  golf  that  I  ever  played 
with  the  rubber-cored  ball  was  in  an 
exhibition  match.  By  "  best  "  I  am  re- 
ferring to  the  match  in  which  my  game 
gave  me  the  greatest  amount  of  personal 
satisfaction,  and  which  I  could  not  have 
played  better  in  a  heavenly  sort  of 
dream.  Whenever  I  start  to  think  about 
my  golfing  life,  or  whenever  a  few 
of  us  talk  of  our  experiences,  the 
recollection  of  this  event  comes  to  me 
instantly. 

The  occasion  was  a  contest  with  Tom 
Williamson    on    a    nine-holes    course    at 


268  HOW  TO  PLAY  GOLF 

Radcliffe-on-Trent.  The  club  had  offered  a 
very  fine  cup  for  the  winner,  and  William- 
son and  I  were  as  keen  as  mustard  on 
winning  it.  We  both  saw  it  overnight, 
and  I  am  certain  that  each  of  us  had  no 
other  ambition  at  the  time  than  to  capture 
that  trophy.  I  felt  in  just  the  right  mood 
in  the  morning,  and  I  played  as  I  had 
never  played  before,  and  have  never  played 
since,  with  the  rubber-core.  It  was  a 
good  course,  with  a  proper  proportion  of 
holes  that  required  two  shots.  I  did 
the  nine  holes  in  scores  of  31,  32,  and 
31,  and  won  by  n  up  and  9  to  play. 
Williamson  hardly  made  a  mistake,  but 
I  kept  on  laying  my  approaches  within 
holing  distance.  He  would  get  on  to  the 
green  in  two,  and  lay  his  long  putt  stone 
dead,  and  then  I  would  get  down  with 
the  like.  I  remember  that  in  the  after- 
noon I  had  three  2's,  one  of  them  at 
the  ninth,  which  was  obtained  by  holing 
a  mashie  shot  that  finished  the  match. 
Williamson's  father  was  as  excited  as 


PROMINENT  PLAYERS          269 

any  of  us  about  the  event,  and  he  really 
was  glum  when  the  affair  ended  so  early. 
A  friend  of  his,  who  had  hastened  to  the 
course  to  see  what  he  could  of  the  match, 
came  up  just  as  we  finished,  and  inquired 
anxiously  how  the  game  stood.  "  Oh," 
said  Williamson,  senior,  "  it's  been  a 
terrible  fiasco.  Only  one  man  turned  up 
to  play,  and  he  wasn't  Tom." 

I  have  mentioned  this  not  in  any  spirit 
of  self-glorification,  but  to  show  that  pro- 
fessionals are  earnest  triers  in  exhibition 
games.  Such  events  not  infrequently  find 
the  player  in  better  form  than  during  a 
championship. 


CHAPTER  XIV 
SUMMER  GOLF  AND  WINTER  GOLF 

CLAY  is,  I  daresay,  essential  to  the 
stability  of  the  land — as  land — and 
we  have  enough  of  it  in  all  conscience  in 
this  country.  There  are  more  clayey  golf 
courses  than  of  any  other  denomination 
of  soil,  and  their  prevalence  means  that 
the  game  of  golf  is  not  quite  the  same  at 
all  seasons  of  the  year.  It  is  one  of  the 
failings  of  the  moderate  player,  who  gives 
little  thought  to  details,  that  he  seldom 
considers  the  question  of  altering  his 
methods  so  as  to  accommodate  himself 
to  varying  conditions.  On  seaside  and 
dry  inland  greens,  no  change  of  system  is 
required.  So  long  as  the  golfer  keeps  to 
the  fairway,  the  ball  generally  sits  up  for 
him  with  some  nobleness  of  bearing,  and 
the  stroke  can  be  executed  in  much  the 

370 


SUMMER  AND  WINTER  GOLF     271 

same  manner  in  the  winter  as  in  the 
summer.  The  habitu6  of  a  clayey  course 
leads  a  much  more  diverting  life.  If  he 
would  maintain  the  standard  of  his  game 
throughout  the  twelve  months,  he  must 
learn  several  shots  at  the  beginning  of  the 
dank  days  which  he  will  need  to  forget 
upon  the  advent  of  the  dry  period ;  he 
must  have  his  summer  methods  and  his 
winter  methods.  He  must  know  just 
when  to  exercise  either,  but  that  need  not 
cause  him  much  trouble,  since  it  takes  him 
little  time  to  tell  whether  he  has  a  good  lie 
or  a  bad  one  through  the  green.  At  least, 
it  does  not  usually  take  him  long  to  tell 
everybody  within  hail  when  he  has  a  bad  lie. 
Naturally,  it  is  in  the  play  through  the 
green  that  the  principal  differences  arise. 
The  tee  shot  is  the  tee  shot  all  the  world 
over,  and  in  every  period  of  the  year  ;  but 
on  a  clayey  course  the  second  shot  in 
November  is  often  a  proposition  totally 
unlike  that  which  presents  itself  in  August. 
Every  golfer  appreciates  and  allows  for 


272  HOW  TO  PLAY  GOLF 

the  difference  in  the  run  of  the  ball ;  that 
is  an  elementary  matter  which  speaks  for 
itself.  What  very  many  players  do  not 
realize  is  the  necessity  of  amending  their 
principles  in  several  important  respects 
when  the  courses  become  heavy.  They 
follow  the  methods  which  perhaps  proved 
highly  profitable  during  the  summer,  and 
generally  arrive  at  the  conclusion  that 
winter  golf  is  an  abomination,  tolerable 
only  because  it  is  better  than  no  golf  at  all. 
I  must  confess  that  it  is  not  always  a  thing 
of  beauty  or  a  joy  for  even  a  day,  and  I 
envy  the  people  who  always  play  on  dry 
greens.  By  taking  into  account,  however, 
the  altered  circumstances,  it  is  possible  to 
obtain  many  good  rounds  on  miry  turf. 
The  point  to  remember  is  not  to  endeavour 
in  the  ordinary  way  to  accomplish  the 
same  shots  through  the  green  as  one  would 
attempt  in  the  summer.  It  is  because  so 
many  people  try  to  do  this  that  they 
feel  discontented  about  their  November 
to  March  golf. 


SUMMER  AND  WINTER  GOLF     273 

It  is  no  use,  for  instance,  "  pecking  " 
at  the  ball,  as  one  can  do  in  dry  conditions. 
So  far  as  I  have  been  able  to  observe,  the 
great  majority  of  golfers  make  the  mistake, 
on  heavy  soil,  of  trying  to  take  the  ball 
cleanly.  They  usually  bungle  the  stroke 
for  the  simple  reason  that  the  ground  has 
a  sufficiently  tenacious  hold  of  the  object 
to  prevent  it  from  rising  sharply  when  the 
club  comes  into  contact  with  it.  After  the 
driver  (and  before  the  putter)  the  most 
valuable  implement  during  the  winter  is 
a  fairly  powerful  mid-iron,  and  the  game 
to  play  with  it  on  soft  soil  is  to  aim 
well  behind  the  ball  and  take  a  little 
turf.  Often  that  is  the  only  way  to 
secure  anything  like  a  shot,  and  while 
our  hearts  may  weep  for  the  excavations 
which  we  are  perpetrating,  we  can  at  least 
retrieve  the  divots  and  repair  the  earth 
which  we  have  so  sadly  maltreated.  At  a 
long  hole,  where  it  is  clearly  impossible  to 
reach  the  green  in  two  strokes,  the  safest 
game  is  usually  to  play  a  drive  and  two 

18 


274  HOW  TO  PLAY  GOLF 

strokes  with  the  mid-iron  or  a  nicely  lofted 
cleek. 

I  like  the  brassie,  but  it  is  not  built  for 
frequent  use  in  the  mud.  Where  there 
are  a  fair  number  of  long  holes,  and 
its  frequent  employment  seems  almost 
essential,  it  is  a  good  idea  to  have  two 
clubs  of  the  kind — one  with  a  little  loft 
on  it  and  the  other  with  a  distinct  loft. 
The  latter  will  often  prove  valuable.  A 
spoon,  indeed,  is  an  exceedingly  handy 
tool  for  winter  golf.  At  no  time  are  its 
virtues  more  apparent  than  during  the 
wet  season.  Unless  one  has  a  fancy  for 
it,  there  is  no  particular  reason  for  bring- 
ing it  into  frequent  play  during  the  dry 
weather,  but  it  is  often  a  stroke  saver  on 
heavy  ground.  It  gets  under  the  ball, 
and  that  is  everything  in  such  circum- 
stances. 

It  is  one  of  the  misfortunes  of  the  people 
who  play  on  muddy  courses  that  they  lose 
touch  with  that  interesting  stroke — the 
cut  shot  with  the  mashie.  It  cannot 


SUMMER  AND  WINTER  GOLF     275 

be  accomplished  on  treacherous  turf.  If 
you  try  to  make  the  ball  bite  on  the  club, 
you  will  merely  dig  the  latter  into  the 
ground,  with  consequent  disaster.  The 
niblick  is  sometimes  a  good  club  for  ap- 
proaching from  a  heavy  lie.  It  cuts 
into  the  turf,  and  if  you  play  it 
with  sufficient  strength  to  raise  a  divot 
and  the  ball  with  it,  the  club  will 
serve  the  purpose  admirably.  On  the 
whole,  however,  the  mashie  is  the  best 
implement  for  approaches  of  moderate 
length,  and  the  soundest  hint  that  one  can 
give  in  connexion  with  it  is  a  warning 
not  to  try  to  do  anything  particularly 
clever  with  it  on  sodden  ground.  A  plain 
lofting  stroke  of  the  right  length  is  all  that 
can  be  attempted  with  safety.  So  that 
the  winter  is  a  leveller  of  golfers  so  far  as 
concerns  the  art  of  approaching ;  there 
is  no  scope  for  executing  the  more  ad- 
vanced shots,  which  ought  to  be  a  satis- 
factory state  of  affairs  for  the  multitude 
of  long-handicap  players. 


276  HOW  TO  PLAY  GOLF 

I  suppose  that,  in  time,  there  will  be 
very  few  wet  winter  courses.  At  present 
there  are  plenty,  but  with  the  continued 
development  of  the  game  in  the  scheme 
of  the  nation's  recreation,  the  work  of 
draining  is  becoming  better  and  better 
understood.  What  is  equally  important, 
the  question  of  money  seldom,  nowadays, 
presents  a  stumbling  block.  Fifteen  years 
ago,  most  of  the  greens  round  London 
were  little  better  during  the  wet  season 
than  quagmires.  Fishermen's  waders 
would  have  been,  perhaps,  the  most 
sensible  footgear.  The  player  squelched 
his  way  through  the  swamps,  scattering 
mud-showers  with  nearly  every  shot  that 
he  executed  through  the  green,  and  yet 
finding  a  deal  of  enjoyment  in  his  game. 
During  recent  years  the  improvements 
have  been  wonderful.  Take,  for  instance, 
the  course  with  which  I  have  the  honour 
of  being  associated — South  Herts,  situated 
at  Totteridge.  It  used  to  be  as  damp  as 
many  another  with  a  clayey  soil.  What 


SUMMER  AND  WINTER  GOLF     277 

was  very  puzzling,  the  draining  operations 
which  had  been  carried  out  failed  in 
the  first  instance  to  produce  satisfactory 
results.  So  we  overhauled  the  system  of 
drainage,  and  discovered  that  it  offered 
a  reasonable  explanation  of  its  inefficiency. 
In  some  cases,  the  pipes  came  to  an  end 
without  being  connected  with  any  ditch 
or  other  natural  channel  for  carrying  off 
superflous  water.  They  followed  devious 
routes,  and  stopped  suddenly  as  though 
the  designer  had  gone  on  planting  them 
till  his  stock  was  exhausted,  and  then 
proceeded  home  with  the  conviction  that 
he  had  done  his  best.  There  was  nowhere 
for  the  water  to  empty  itself,  and  so,  for 
a  time,  we  were  distinctly  on  the  wet  side. 
We  set  about  the  work  again,  and  laid 
down  some  30,000  new  pipes.  The  reward 
of  that  enterprise  has  been  great.  It  has 
afforded  ample  proof  of  the  possibilities 
of  inducing  a  clay  course  to  remain 
decently  dry  during  the  winter  months. 


CHAPTER  XV 
THE  GAME  ABROAD 

OLF  has  done  wonders  since  it  found 
vjits  way  out  of  Scotland,  and,  in  con- 
nexion with  its  development,  nothing  has 
been  more  remarkable  than  its  progress 
abroad.  When,  just  over  twenty  years 
ago,  I  left  Jersey  and  came  to  England  to 
take  up  the  game  as  a  profession,  it  was 
beginning  to  obtain  its  grip  on  the  affec- 
tions of  the  English  people.  Outside  the 
limits  of  the  United  Kingdom  it  occupied 
an  exceedingly  humble  position.  Even  in 
this  country  players  were  not  so  numer- 
ous as  one  might  have  wished,  and  the 
professional  had  many  opportunities  of 
practising  in  splendid  isolation.  Such 
studying  of  all  the  points  of  the  pastime 
doubtless  did  him  a  lot  of  good  (it  certainly 
helped  me,  for  I  spent  nearly  all  my  spare 


278 


THE  GAME  ABROAD  279 

hours  in  learning  new  shots)  but,  at  the 
time,  it  was  not  a  particularly  lucrative 
pursuit,  and  it  required  a  deal  of  enthu- 
siasm, since  it  seemed  to  be  a  matter  of 
trying  to  secure  a  state  of  perfection  in  a 
department  of  life  that  interested  com- 
paratively few  people. 

It  is  a  lucky  circumstance  to  have  lived 
through  this  crowded  period  which  has 
seen  golf  rise  from  obscurity  to  a  position 
among  the  world's  great  games.  To 
recall  its  limited  degree  of  importance  in 
the  days  of  a  quarter  of  a  century  ago, 
and  to  turn  from  those  memories  to  a 
conception  of  its  present  magnitude,  is  a 
trial  in  contrasts  that  almost  numbs  the 
brain.  The  difference  is  so  great  as  to 
be  indescribable.  And  it  is  a  fine  thing 
to  know  that  golf  is  now  the  possession 
of  the  universe,  and  not  the  hobby  of 
one  race. 

I  have  played  in  the  United  States, 
France,  Germany,  Belgium,  Switzerland, 
and  other  countries.  Everywhere  the 


280  HOW  TO  PLAY  GOLF 

enthusiasm  of  the  natives  has  been  un- 
mistakable. As  an  example  of  zeal,  I 
can  imagine  nothing  better  than  an  inci- 
dent that  came  under  my  notice  at  Le 
Touquet  three  years  ago.  Two  French- 
men arrived  to  engage  in  a  match.  They 
found  the  course  covered  with  snow  to 
the  depth  of  several  inches.  They  were 
informed  that  golf  was  out  of  the  question, 
and  so,  indeed,  the  several  British  golfers 
staying  at  the  hotel  had  decided  finally 
and  irrevocably.  But  the  Frenchmen 
were  not  to  be  deterred.  They  obtained 
some  snow-shoes,  went  out  and  played, 
and  declared  at  the  finish  that  they  had 
enjoyed  the  round  immensely.  France  is, 
I  think,  destined  to  be  a  great  golfing 
country.  Every  year  sees  an  increase  in 
the  number  of  players,  and  the  clubs 
around  Paris  are  now  recruited  princi- 
pally from  French  people,  whereas,  a  few 
years  ago,  they  were  supported  almost 
entirely  by  British  and  American  residents 
and  visitors. 


THE  GAME  ABROAD  281 

How  vastly  the  standard  of  golf  has 
improved  in  the  United  States  since  I  was 
there  in  1900  it  is  easy  to  tell  from  the 
form  of  several  American  amateurs,  such 
as  Mr  W.  J.  Travis,  Mr  J.  D.  Travers, 
Mr  E.  M.  Byers,  Mr  C.  Evans,  and  Mr 
F.  Herrshoff,  who  have  visited  this  country 
during  the  past  nine  or  ten  years.  The 
best  native  amateur  whom  I  saw  during 
my  tour  was  Mr  H.  M.  Harriman,  and  he 
was  very  good  indeed.  But  many  fine 
golfers  have  since  arisen  in  the  States,  and 
none  better  than  Mr  Jerome  Travers, 
whose  style,  I  thought,  was  as  good  as 
any  I  had  seen  in  a  youthful  player. 

No  doubt  the  character  of  golf-course 
architecture  in  America  has  altered  a  lot 
since  I  was  there.  At  that  time,  it 
was  often  primitive  and  frequently  start- 
ling in  its  originality.  Asphalt  teeing 
"  grounds "  were  among  the  features 
that  made  me  think  deeply  in  the  early 
stages  of  my  visit.  They  seemed  to 
offer  uncomfortably  big  opportunities  for 


282  HOW  TO  PLAY  GOLF 

breaking  one's  favourite  driver,  and  they 
were  responsible  for  an  alteration  in  my 
methods,  which  clung  to  me  for  a  long 
while  after  I  returned  to  England.  In 
order  to  avoid  the  danger  of  hitting  the 
asphalt  and  so  possibly  smashing  the  club, 
I  developed  the  habit  of  falling  back  at 
the  moment  of  impact.  I  never  tried  a 
low  shot  against  the  wind  from  those 
teeing  "  grounds  "  ;  the  beating  down  of 
the  ball  and  consequent  contact  with  the 
ground  just  in  front  of  the  tee  would 
almost  assuredly  have  meant  a  detached 
club-head  and  a  shower  of  splinters.  I 
always  fell  back  as  I  made  the  stroke, 
thus  causing  the  ball  to  fly  high,  and  it 
took  me  a  year  or  two  to  thoroughly  purge 
my  system  of  that  habit  when  I  settled 
down  again  to  home  golf.  Those  ada- 
mantine starting-places  must  have  been 
fine  things  for  the  club-makers  ;  I  should 
imagine  that  an  inexpert  player  who  could 
not  be  sure  of  hitting  the  ball  cleanly 
would  need  to  take  out  about  a  dozen 


THE  GAME  ABROAD  283 

drivers  in  order  to  make  sure  of  having 
one  left  intact  for  the  shot  to  the  home 
hole.  But  they  were  by  no  means  good 
for  the  golf  of  a  country,  and  I  daresay 
they  have  long  since  ceased  to  exist. 

Strange  features  of  the  forest  courses 
were  the  teeing  grounds  built  high  up  in 
trees.  I  encountered  them  on  two  occasions. 

(They  were  valuable  innovations,  since  they 
afforded  a  sight  of  the  flag  where,  in  the 
ordinary  way,  no  such  guide  would  have 
been  obtainable.  Wonderful  creations  were 
some  of  these  courses  made  in  the  midst  of 
pine  forests.  The  player  had  to  scale  a  long 
flight  of  steps  in  order  to  reach  a  platform 
erected  in  a  tree.  Then,  feeling  in  this  lofty 
position  like  a  successful  Parliamentary 
candidate  who  had  come  out  on  to  the 
balcony  to  return  thanks  to  the  crowd 
below,  he  teed  up  and  drove. 

The  golfer  who  makes  an  extensive 
tour  in  the  States  sees  many  varieties  of 
the  game.  Or,  at  least,  his  experiences 
a  dozen  years  ago  were  amazingly  diverse. 


284  HOW  TO  PLAY  GOLF 

I  believe  that  great  improvements  have 
since  been  effected,  and  that  some  of  the 
situations  which  I  found  enjoyable  by 
reason  of  their  total  unexpectedness  no 
longer  present  themselves  to  the  seeker 
of  novelty.  The  Americans  have  taken 
heart  and  soul  to  the  game,  and  spared 
neither  pains  nor  money  to  give  to  their 
links  an  appearance  of  orthodoxy  and  a 
worthy  resemblance  to  British  courses. 
One  "  green  "  on  which  I  played  consisted 
of  nothing  but  loose  sand  from  tee  to 
hole,  all  the  way  round.  It  was  like  a 
huge  hazard,  miles  long  and  hundreds  of 
yards  wide  ;  it  was  as  though  one  had 
committed  some  awful  sin  and  been 
sentenced  to  spend  a  day  in  a  bunker. 
No  attempt  had  been  made  to  grow  so 
much  as  a  blade  of  grass.  A  heavy  roller 
had  been  put  over  the  desert,  some  teeing 
grounds  and  holes  had  been  made,  and 
the  enthusiasts  had  gone  forth  to  pursue 
the  game  of  golf.  They  were  real 
enthusiasts.  That  self-same  place  has 


THE  GAME  ABROAD  285 

now,  I  understand,  a  very  good  course. 
Some  of  the  sand  putting  greens  in  Florida 
were  far  truer  than  the  great  majority 
that  consist  of  turf.  In  fact,  they  offered 
no  possible  excuse  for  the  missing  of  a  putt. 
A  stroke  of  the  right  strength  and  direction 
was  certain  to  go  down.  Baked  by  the  sun, 
they  were  rolled,  sprinkled  with  sand,  and 
watered  twice  every  day  by  the  hand  of 
man.  The  result  was  the  production  of  a 
surface  as  true  as  that  of  any  billiard  table. 
They  were  treated  early  in  the  morning  and 
again  before  the  beginning  of  the  after- 
noon round.  Their  thirst  was  considerable, 
and  the  watering  was  essential  because 
when  they  became  dry  and  the  wind 
started  to  disturb  the  sand,  they  lost  all 
their  beauties.  They  resolved  themselves 
into  "  greens  "  of  grit.  Still,  when  they 
were  good,  they  were  very  good  indeed. 

It  was  at  St  Augustine,  in  Florida, 
that  I  first  saw  land-crabs  scuttling  about 
a  golf  course.  To  the  man  who  has  grown 
tired  of  condemning  worms  for  their  mal- 


286  HOW  TO  PLAY  GOLF 

practices,  and  allowing  grudging  approval 
to  sheep  and  rabbits  for  their  work  as 
mowers  of  the  fairway,  life  takes  a  new 
turn  when  he  observes  a  family  party  of 
crabs  ambling  around  the  spot  to  which 
he  intends  to  drive.  Still,  they  are  quite 
reasonable  creatures.  At  the  approach  of 
human  footsteps,  they  dash  off  to  their 
holes  in  the  ground.  They  lose  very  little 
time  in  the  task.  They  are  interesting 
inhabitants  of  the  links ;  and  it  would  be 
a  great  relief  in  this  country  if,  instead  of 
reading  that  a  ball  had  been  carried  off  by 
a  crow,  we  could  learn  that  it  had  been 
seized  and  taken  underground  by  a  crab. 
Or  that  a  golfer,  instead  of  hitting  a  bird 
on  the  wing,  had  struck  a  crab  on  the  claw. 
When  I  was  in  the  States,  the  turf 
generally  was  not  nearly  so  good  as  that 
found  in  Britain.  It  must  have  con- 
siderably retarded  the  progress  of  American 
players.  In  fact,  the  standard  of  their 
golf  twelve  years  ago  was  very  good 
considering  that  they  had  not  long  taken 


THE  GAME  ABROAD  287 

up  the  game  in  a  whole-hearted  manner, 
and  that  they  played  under  difficulties 
as  regards  the  condition  of  the  ground 
the  like  of  which  we  seldom  experience 
in  this  happy  land  of  velvety  turf.  Im- 
provement in  the  courses  was  bound  to 
come  ;  without  it,  America  could  hardly 
have  produced  such  excellent  players  as 
she  has  sent  to  Britain. 

Wherever  I  went  I  found  evidence  of 
great  enthusiasm  for  the  game.  Large 
crowds  followed  the  matches,  and  I  must 
confess  that  I  was  pleasantly  surprised 
by  the  knowledge  which  they  displayed 
of  the  pastime.  The  people  of  the  States 
took  to  golf  with  boundless  zeal  and  with 
a  fine  regard  for  traditions,  and  even  in 
those  days,  I  always  felt  that  the  on- 
lookers had  a  real  interest  in  the  play  and 
were  not  merely  curious  to  know  what 
kind  of  entertainment  this  golf  might  be. 
All  the  same,  they  liked  something  out  of 
the  ordinary,  and  they  were  keen  on  an 
odd,  and  perhaps  purposeless  trick,  which 


288  HOW  TO  PLAY  GOLF 

I  was  wont  to  perform  for  the  sake  of 
variety  when  I  was  at  Ganton.  How  they 
came  to  hear  that  I  had  ever  done  it  I  do 
not  know ;  in  any  case,  they  liked  it. 
What  I  used  to  do  was  to  place  a  ball 
lightly  at  the  top  of  a  gorse-bush,  so  that 
no  branches  barred  the  passage  of  a  club 
from  underneath,  take  a  full  swing  at  it 
with  a  driver,  and  try  to  hit  it  straight 
up  into  the  air  so  that  it  would  fall  within 
a  yard  or  so  of  the  spot  from  which  it  had 
been  despatched.  It  may  have  been  good 
training  for  the  eye  ;  it  certainly  needed 
a  true  swing.  It  may  have  been  rather 
silly;  but  anyhow  I  could  send  the  ball 
nearly  out  of  sight  into  the  skies,  and 
sometimes  make  it  drop  in  the  same  small 
bush  from  which  I  had  hit  it.  Occasionally, 
too,  the  scheme  very  nearly  recoiled  on 
my  own  head — in  the  literal  sense.  The 
Americans  heard  of  the  trick,  and  often 
insisted  upon  my  doing  it.  We  have  all 
had  our  youthful  absurdities  ;  that  was 
mine. 


THE  GAME  ABROAD  289 

One  point  which  impressed  me  in 
America  was  the  distance  that  I  could 
drive.  I  could  make  the  ball  "  carry " 
much  farther  than  in  this  country.  The 
dryer  atmosphere  of  the  States  offers  less 
resistance  to  the  ball,  and  if  you  happen 
to  flatter  yourself,  when  on  the  other  side 
of  the  Atlantic,  that  you  have  put  yards 
and  yards  on  to  your  tee-shots,  you  suffer 
an  awakening  when  you  return  home. 
But  these  deceptions  are  constantly  in- 
flicted upon  the  person  who  travels  in 
pursuit  of  golf.  Thus  in  the  south  of 
France,  hazards  and  holes  look  farther  off 
— to  the  eye  of  the  visitor — than  they  are 
in  point  of  fact.  You  take  in  the  situation 
at  a  glance,  think  that  you  have  executed 
just  the  right  strength  of  shot,  and  are 
disconcerted  to  see  your  ball  alight  on  the 
far  side  of  the  green.  Still,  these  things 
are  educational,  and  are  soon  learnt. 

Golf  is  going  ahead  splendidly  in 
Germany,  and  I  have  heard  the  opinion 
expressed  by  German  players  who  know 
19 


290  HOW  TO  PLAY  GOLF 

the  desires  of  their  countrymen,  that  if 
some  British  people  who  knew  all  the 
requirements  of  course-construction  would 
select  a  site  and  lay  out  a  first-class  green 
near  one  of  the  big  cities  of  the  Fatherland, 
the  enterprise  would  be  a  huge  success. 
So  far  as  my  experience  goes,  the  German 
courses  are  certainly  moderate  when 
judged  by  our  own  standard. 

In  Switzerland,  too,  the  game  is  making 
great  headway.  Montreux,  where  the 
golf  course  is  a  kind  of  emerald  isle  sur- 
rounded by  snow,  may  surely  be  taken 
as  a  model  by  all  clubs  who  find  them- 
selves beset  with  those  difficulties  which 
landlords  have  a  way  of  instituting.  In 
order  to  secure  sufficient  ground  for  twelve 
extra  holes,  the  Montreux  Club  had  to 
bargain  with  eighty-seven  landlords.  What 
a  time  it  must  have  been  for  the 
officials.  It  took  three  years  to  success- 
fully complete  the  negotiations,  two  of 
the  landowners,  whose  small  plots  were 
situate  in  the  middle  of  the  proposed  new 


THE  GAME  ABROAD  291 

course,  being  possessed  with  a  determina- 
tion to  hold  out  against  even  the  most 
tempting  offers.  Ultimately,  however, 
they  gave  way,  and  the  committee  of  the 
Montreux  Club  were  happy. 

Perhaps,  sooner  or  later,  I  shall  go 
farther  afield.  From  time  to  time,  I  have 
received  invitations  to  visit  Australia, 
South  Africa,  India,  and  other  countries, 
but  they  have  seemed  so  very  many 
driver  shots  away  that  I  have  hesitated 
to  leave  my  native  teeing-ground.  Golf  is 
now  the  game  of  all  nations,  as  it  deserves 
to  be.  It  has  no  equal,  I  think,  as  a  test 
of  human  strengths  and  failings.  It  is 
not  to  be  mastered  by  impetuosity.  Nor 
is  skill  at  it  to  be  attained  by  indifference 
to  its  difficulties.  I  have  often  seen  and 
heard  myself  described  as  a  natural  golfer. 
I  can  only  say  that  in  my  younger  days  I 
practised  as  assiduously  as  anybody  in 
the  land.  Not  one  of  my  shots  came  to 
me  as  a  gift  pure  and  simple.  For  two 
or  three  years  after  I  became  a  profes- 


292  HOW  TO  PLAY  GOLF 

sional  I  was  always  experimenting  and 
thinking  out  fresh  methods  of  executing 
strokes — for,  in  those  days,  I  never  saw 
anybody  on  whom  I  could  mould  my 
style.  Whatever  instinct  I  may  have  had 
for  golf  would  never  have  taken  definite 
shape  unless  I  had  pondered  a  lot  and 
practised  a  lot.  That  is  the  way  of  the 
game.  There  can  be  no  such  person  in 
golf  as  one  who  plays  well  without  know- 
ing how  he  does  it.  A  good  golfer  realizes 
even  to  the  smallest  detail  how  he  obtains 
his  effects.  I  have  set  down  in  this  book 
all  that  I  have  learnt  in  twenty  years  and 
more  of  constant  association  with  the 
links.  I  can  only  hope  that  the  fruits  of 
my  experience  will  be  helpful  to  many 
another  aspirant  to  efficiency,  and  that 
I  shall  be  able  to  do  just  what  I  have 
advised — just  what  I  have  proved  on 
thousands  of  occasions  to  be  right — when 
I  play  my  round  on  the  morrow. 


INDEX 


ADDRESS  :  for  tee  shot,  96 
stooping  or  crouching  undesir- 
able, 125 
with  mashie,  134 
proper  method  of  grounding 

the  club,  235,  236 
Aim  :  wrong  aim  not  to  be  con- 
fused with  pull  or  slice,  251 
Amateurs   versus    Professionals, 

191  ff 
Approach  :  the  most  difficult  part 

of  the  game,  34,  92 
bold  approach  should  be  en- 
couraged by  golf  architect, 

37 
the  hole  and  not  the  flag  should 

be  aimed  at,  42 
Arms :   movement  of  in  swing, 

104,  105,   112,  123,  237, 

248,  249 
should  not  be  spread  too  far 

apart,  75 
movement  of  in  mashie  shot, 

136 

in  cut  mashie  shot,  144 
in  putting,  159,  163 

BADEN-BADEN,  12 

Ball :  position  of  in  relation  to  feet 

during  stroke,  102,  122 
See      Gutty,      Rubber-cored, 

Haskell,  Standardization 
Ball,  John,  227 
Ball,  Tom,  159,  164,  265 
Boston,  220 
Braid,  James,  65,  165,  183,  195, 

258,  259-261,  264 
Brassie :  should  be  of  the  same 

lie  as  driver,  49 ;  and  of 

the  same  length,  94 


Brassie — continued. 

should  be  stiffer  than  driver, 
50 

tends  to  become  too  whippy 
after  much  use,  50 

use  of  on  tee,  89,  93 

on  fairway,  94 

in  cupped  lie,  1 1 1 
Bunker.     See  Hazard 
Byers,  E.  M.,  281 

CARRY  :  should  be  aimed  at  rather 

than  run,  156°,  24 
Clacton-on-Sea,  178 
Clay  :  getting  out  of,  178 

influence  of  on  methods  of  play, 

270 

Cleek  :  should  be  two  or  three 
inches  shorter  than  driver 
and  brassie  120 
wooden,  127 

value  of  cleek  shot,  114,  115 
as  opposed  to  iron,  114 
Clothes,  64-67 
Clubs :  psychological  effect  of  a 

new  club,  46 
choice  of,  48,  56 
grip  of,  62-64 
See  Brassie,  Driver,  etc.,  Iron 

clubs,  Wooden  Clubs. 
Course,  length  of,  36 
Cut:  with  mashie  shots,  141-146, 

27.5 
in  putting,  165 

DISTANCE,  with  iron  clubs  should 
be  governed  by  length  of 
back  swing,  124,  150 

Drainage  of  golf  links,  276, 
277 


294 


HOW  TO  PLAY  GOLF 


Drive :  record  drives,  length  of, 

22 

preparations  for  58-62 
seven  golden  rules  for,  112 
should  be  partly  hit  as  well  as 

swing,  72,  101,  113,  249, 

250 

with  one  hand,  245,  246. 
See  Tee  shot. 
Driver:  should  be  of  the  same  lie 

as  brassie,  49  ;  and  of  the 

same  length,  94 
should     be      whippier     than 

brassie,  50 
tends  to  become  too  whippy 

after  much  use,  50,  51 
two  drivers  should  be  carried, 

Si.  53 

should  not  be  too  long,  52 

swing  with  driver,  52 
Driving  mashie,  as  alternative  to 

cleek,  125,  126 
Duncan,  George,  167,  263 

ELBOWS  :  movement  of  in  swing, 

99,  112 

for  push  shot,  201 
Evans,  C.,  281 

Eye  :  keep  the  eye  on  the  ball, 
72,95 

FEET  :  position  of  in  stance,  237, 
238 

for  slice,  216 

for  pull,  222 
Fingers  :  place  and  movement  of 

in  swing,  99,  100 
Florida,  golf  in,  285 
Follow-through,  the,  1 08 
Form,  variability  of,  45 
France,  golf  in,  280,  289 

GANTON,  288 

Germany,  golf  in,  289  ff. 

Golf:  standard  of  play  deteriorat- 
ing, 10,  II 

popularity  of  increased  by  in- 
troduction of  rubber-cored 
ball,  9 


Grass,  long,  recovery  from,  186, 

187. 
Greens  :  guarding  approach  to, 

back  of,  37 

flanks  of,  38 
should  be  undulating,  43 
sand  greens  in  Florida,  285 
Grip  :  on  clubs,  62-64 

with  hands,  importance  of  good 

grip,  7i,  95,  "2 
various  methods  of,  82-86 
in  swing,  99 
in  mashie  shot,  137 
in  cut  mashie  shot,  145 
in  putting,  162,  163 
in  pulled  shot,  222 
faulty   grips,   234,    235,   244, 

245 
Grounding     the     club,     proper 

method  of,  235,  236 
Gutty  ball,  educational  value  of, 

I,  19. 
See  also  Rubber-cored  ball 

HANDS  :  position  of  for  push  shot, 

199 
movement  of  right  hand  for 

pulled  or  sliced  shot,  210, 

219 

position  of  for  low  shot,  225 
Harriman,  H.  M.,  281 
Haskell  ball,  introduction  of,  6, 

8,21 
Hazards  :  change  in  occasioned 

by  introduction  of  rubber- 
cored  ball,  24 
cross      hazards,      advantages 

and  disadvantages  of,  25, 

26 
should    be    placed   so  as    to 

necessitate  carry,  24,  26 
at  short  holes,  31,  32,  33 
at  medium  length  holes,  33 
at  long  holes,  35,  36 
diagonal  hazards,  advantages 

of,  26,  33 
guarding    approach   to   green 

— in  short  holes,  32  ;  in 

long  holes,  33 


INDEX 


295 


Hazard  s — continued 

guarding  back  of  green,  37 
guarding  flanks  of  green,  38 
should  be  pleasing  to  the 

eye,  39,  40 
pot  bunkers,  use  of,  24,  27, 

40 

grass  hazards,  use  of,  41 
bunkers  should  be  deep  rather 

than  high,  41,  42, 
mounds,  use  of,  42,  43 
the  easiest  way  out  should  be 

played  for,  171,  172 
method  of  play  in,  173  ff. 
deliberately  playing  into 

hazards,     occasions    for, 

183,  184 

playing  from  mounds,  185 
grass  hazards,  186,  187 
Head :  steadiness  of  during  swing 

essential,  71-81,  95,  112, 

113,  118,  119,  239,  240, 

247 

exception  to  this,  144 
Heels :  movement  of  in  mashie 

shot,  132,  137 
Herd,  Alexander,  7,  126,    168, 

263 

Herreshoff,  F.,  281 
Hickory,  use  of  for  shafts,  57 
Hilton,  H.  H.,  191 
Hips  :   movement  of  in  swing, 

99,  103,  112,  241,  247 
in  mashie  shot,  136 
in  cut  mashie  shot,  144 
in  sliced  shot,  217 
Holes :  short,      number    of    in 

model  course,  30 
difficulty  of,  30,  92 
construction  of,  30,  31 
proper    length    of   in    model 

course,  30,  34,  35 
Hook.     See  Pull. 
Hoylake,  6,  226,  227 

IRON  :  should  be  a  little  shorter 

than  cleek,  120 
iron  shots    from  fairway  the 
easiest   in   golf,  89,   115, 


Iron  clubs  :  should  be  stiff,  54  ff. 
fallacy    of    using    only    iron 

clubs,  55 
grip    should   be  tighter  than 

with  wooden  clubs,  117 
aim  should  be  taken  behind 

the  ball,  123,  139 
stance  with,  117,  120  ff. 
swing  with,  117,  121,  123 
length     of    shot    should    be 

governed    by    length    of 

swing,  124 

KNEES  :  movement  of  in  mashie 

shot,  131,  136,  137 
in  cut  mashie  shot,  144 

LA  BOULIE,  167 

Lance  wood,   use   of  for  shafts, 

56>  57 
Legs,  movement  of  in  stab  shot, 

186 

Lessons,  value  of,  69,  70 
Le  Touquet,  280 
Low  shot,  method  of  procuring, 

225 

M'EwEN,  Peter,  6 

Mashie :  needs    more    precision 

than  other  clubs,  130 
no    more    than    three-quarter 
swing  desirable,  133,  134 
position  of  feet  during  stroke, 

134 

method  of  swing,  136 
should  ordinarily  be  used  only 
when  within  100  yards  of 
the  hole,  134 
common     faults     in     mashie 

swing,  138 
use  of  cut  with  mashie,  141- 

146,  275 
running  up  shot  with  mashie, 

149 

use  of  on  heavy  soil,  275 
Mashie-niblick,  the,  146 
Massy,  Arnaud,   105,   165,  227, 

228,  262 

Mid-iron,!use  of  on  heavy  soil,  273 
Mid-Surrey,  43 


296 


HOW  TO  PLAY  GOLF 


Montreux,  290 

NEWCASTLE,  Co.  Down,  228 
Niblick  :  use  of  in  approaching, 

.    146,147 
in  bunkers,  173  ff, 
cut  shot  with  niblick  in  bunker, 

177 

use  of  by  Ray,  256 
use  of  on  heavy  soil,  275 
Northwood,  147 

"Our  OF  BOUNDS,"  precautions 
against,  61,  62 

PARK,  Willie,  165 
Pitch  stroke,  change  in  method 
of  occasioned  by  introduc- 
tion of  rubber-cored  ball, 
.  6,  7,  17 
Practice   as   opposed    to   match 

play,  value  of,  66,  67 
Prince's  Sandwich,  28 
Professionals    versus  Amateurs, 

191  ff. 
Pull :  intentional,  occasions  for 

use  of,  208-211 
most  people  now  play  for, 

51  ff.,  223 
teeing  for,  62 
dangers  of,  212,  213,  221 
method  of  procuring,  221  ff 
grip  for,  222 
stance  for,  222 
unintentional,   its    cause    and 

cure,  243-247 

should  be  as  severely  pun- 
ished as  slice,  38 
not  to  be  confused  with  faulty 

aim,  251 
Push  shot:  nature  of,  193  ff.,  197, 

260 

value  of,  194  ff.,  260 
can  be  played  with  any  club, 

195,  196 
method     of     accomplishing, 

198  ff. 

no  more  than  three-quarter 
swing  should  be  attemp- 
ted, 198 


Putter,  length  of,  167 
Putting :    concentration    of   the 
mind    essential    to   good 
putting,  44 
on  an  undulating  as  opposed 

to  a  level  green,  43 
no  infallible  rules  for,  92 
the  best  way  to  put,  153, 

159 

head  must  be  kept  still,  153, 
156,  158,  159,  160 

confidence  essential,  153-155 

the  club  should  act  as  a  pen- 
dulum, 159 

the  push  shot,  161 

grip,  162,  163 

"Never  up,  never  in,"  164 

spin,  165 

studying  the  line,  166 

a  cure  for  bad  putting,    154, 
156,  1 66 

amateurs  versus  professionals, 

168 
Putting  green.     See  Green. 

QUILL,  Colonel,  76,  95,  240 

RADCLIFFE-ON-TRENT,  268 

Ray,  Edward,  254  ff. 

"Road"  hole,  the,  at  St 
Andrews,  182 

Robson,  Fred,  266 

Rough,  a  greater  embarrassment 
than  bunkers,  38 

Rubber-cored  ball,  effect  of  in- 
troduction of,  3  ff.,  44, 
69 

amount  of  extra  length    ob- 
tained by,  21 
See  Haskell. 

Run.     See  Carry 

Running  up,  method  of,  149 

ST  ANDREWS,  40,  168,  182 
Sand,  getting  out  of,  173  ff. 
Sandwich,  163 
Schlaffing,  its   cause    and   cure, 

249 
Sea-side  as  opposed  to  inland 

links,  206,  207 


INDEX 


297 


Shafts :  62-64 

of  lancewood,  56,  57 
of  hickory,  57 
Sherlock,  James,  264,  266 
Shoulders :      movement    of    in 

swing,  108,  112 
in  mashie  shot,  138 
in  sliced  shot,  216 
Slice,   intentional:     to   be   pre- 
ferred to  pull,  214,  215 
teeing  for,  62 
occasions  for  use  of,   208- 

211 

method  of  procuring,   216- 

219 

stance  for,  216 
unintentional :  punishment  of, 

38 
must  not  be  confused  with 

faulty  aim,  251 
its  cause  and  cure,  241-243 
Socketing  :  remedy  for,  248,  249 
South  Herts,  276 
Spoon :  as  alternative  to  cleek, 

125,  126 

use  of  on  heavy  soil,  274 
Stab  shot,  the,  186 
Stance :    change    in   occasioned 
by  introduction  of  rubber- 
cored  ball,  15  ff. 
with  wooden  clubs  depends  on 

lie  of  club,  49 
choice  of  on  teeing  ground,  58, 

59 

for  tee  shot,  96,  97 
for  mashie  shot,  132-135 
for  cut  mashie  shot,  143 
for    getting   out  of   bunkers, 

174 

for  push  shot,  198  ff. 
for  sliced  shot,  216 
for  pulled  shot,  222 
for  low  shot,  225 
for  high  shot,  226 
common  faults  in,  235  ff. 
Standardization  of  ball,  4-6 
Stoke  Poges,  264 
Style  :  change  in  occasioned  by 
introduction    of    rubber- 
cored  ball,  3  ff,  15  ff.  24 


Swing :  changes  in  occasioned 
by  introduction  of  rubber- 
cored  ball,  8,  15,  18 

with  driver,  52 

steadiness  of  head  during  swing 
essential,  71-81,  95,  112, 
113,  118,  119,  239,  240, 
247 

should  contain  an  element  of 
hitting,  72,  101,  113,249, 
250 

an  art,  89 

varieties  of,  89,  90 

St  Andrews  swing,  the,  89 

*  flat '  swing,  the,  90 

the  first  thing  to  be  learnt  in 
golf,  92 

proper  method  of,  97  ff.  no 

upward  swing,  the,  98,  99, 
102,  104,  109 

downward  swing,  the,  104-107 

common  faults,  107 

follow-through,  the,  108 

length  of  should  govern  dis- 
tance in  iron  shots,  124 

stooping  or  crouching  undesir- 
able, 125 

for  mashie  shot,  136 

for    getting    out  of  bunkers, 

173,  174 

for  push  shot,  198  ff. 
for  sliced  shot,  217 
Switzerland  :  golf  in,  290 

TAYLOR,  J.  H.,65, 165, 178, 228, 

261  ff. 
Tee  :  making  of,  58-60 

place  of  on  teeing-ground,  61, 

62 

for  high  shot,  226 
for  low  shot,  225 
asphalt  teeing  grounds,  281, 

282 

in  trees,  283 

Tee  shot :  at  short  holes,  30 
choice    of    stance     for,     58, 

59 

method  of  making  identical 
with  that  of  shot  on  fair- 
way, 93 


298 


HOW  TO  PLAY  GOLF 


Topping :  its  cause  and  cure,  239, 

240 

Totteridge,  276 
Travers,  J.  D.  281 
Travis,  W.  J.  163,  281 

UNITED  STATES  :  golf  in,  281  ff. 
VARDON,  Tom,  266 
WALTON  HEATH,  195 


White,  Jack,  164 
Williamson,  Tom,  266 
Wooden  clubs,  lie  of,  48 

grip  should  be  looser  than  with 

iron  clubs,  117 

Wrists  :  movement  of  in  swing, 
103,  112,  243,  244 

in  mashie  shot,  138,  139 

in  cut  mashie  shot,  145 

in  putting,  159,  163 

in  push  shot,  201 


PRINTED   BT 

TCKNBULI.  AND  SPEARS, 
EDINBURGH 


THIS  BOOK  IS  DUE  ON  THE  LAST  DATE 
STAMPED  BELOW 


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SEP     3  1947 


FEB 


^S4& 


LD 


AIM* 


rno 


13Mar'5f(H. 


SEP  9     19W 


LD  21- 


. 


